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AM ERICAN SLAVERY 



TO BE PEKPETUATED? 



% lebate 



BETWEEN 



REY. W. G. BROWNLOW and KEY. A. PRYNE. 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER, 1858. 




PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHORS 

BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

PHILADELPHIA. 



L- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



/ :^>- 



PKEFACE. '^^ 



As a book must not go out without a Preface, the 
undersigned herewith introduce the correspondence 
between them, which gave rise to the debate in which 
thej have been engaged, and which is substantially 
contained in the following pages. 

In presenting the following work to the American 
public, no apologies are offered. We live under a 
Government which tolerates liberty of thought, liberty 
of speech, and freedom of the press ; and in this ex- 
pression of our honest views and feelings — differing 
widely as we do — upon the subject of Domestic 
Slavery in the United States — a subject relating to 
the general welfare of the country, we are but ex- 
ercising a right which belongs to every American 
citizen. The age of proscription for opinion's sake, is 
past, and, as we trust, never again to return. The 
liberal genius of our free institutions, allows to all un- 
restricted interchange of thought and sentiment ; 
while men's opinions are received or rejected, accord- 
ing as they possess merit or demerit. 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

For the imperfections of this volume, the under- 
signed offer no apology. The Lectures of each were 
prepared for the occasion, under the pressure of other 
important, and frequently distracting avocations. We 
both claim to have spoken honestly, and with a sincere 
desire to do good. One of us a Southern man, the 
other a Northern man — both prejudiced, as we frankly 
admit, at least to some extent, in our educations, habits, 
and associations, in favor of the institutions, and usages 
of the respective section of the country we hail from — 
the reader will appreciate our principles and opinions, 
as he may deem them entitled to favor. 

W. G. Brownlow. 
Abram Prynb. 
Philadelphia, Sept. 14, 1858. 



PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE. 



[From the Knoxville Whig.] 

OUR DISCUSSION IN SEPTEMBER. 

The reader will see from the following correspondence, that 
the battle spoken of in many of the newspapers, comes oflF on 
Tuesday, the seventh of September, in the city of Philadelphia, 
between the Editor of this paper and Rev. Abram Pryne, a Con- 
gregational minister, and the Editor of an anti-slavery paper, 
published in McGrawville, Courtland county, New York, styled 
the " Central Reformer." The following challenge appears in 
his Reformer for March 10, 1858. 



REV. MR. BROWNLOW AND SLAVERY. 

The public will remember that this gentleman has challenged 
the friends of freedom in the North to debate with him the 
merits or demerits of slavery. His very elaborate challenge has 
not been accepted, unless it be a conditional acceptance, from 
Frederick Douglas. I now propose to reduce the question to a 
single proposition, sweeping the entire area of the subject, and 
in that form I challenge him to its discussion. The proposition 
I would state as follows : — 

" Ought American Slavery to be abolished V 

This question to be reversed when the debate is half through, 
and to be stated as follows: — 

"Ought American Slavery to be perpetuated?" 

1* (5) 



6 CORRESPONDENCE. 

He may select the time and place of holding the debate. I 
only stipulating that it shall be in the State of New York, and 
that I shall have four weeks' notice between his acceptance of ray 
challenge and the commencement of the debate. 

As my name may not have reached him, I may state that like 
Mr. Brownlow I am a clergyman, and an editor, and will take 
the liberty to refer him to Hon. Gerritt Smith, Hon. J. K. Gid- 
dings, Dr. Mark Hopkins, President of Williams College, and 
Rev. L. G. Calkins, President of New York Central College. 

Abram Pryne. 

McGkawville, New York. 



Central Reform Office, 
McGrawville, New York, April 14, 1858 



.} 



Dear Sir — I sent you some time since a challenge to debate 
the question of the rightfulness of American Slavery with me. 
I have not heard from you — I write to express the hope that 
after your blustering announcement that you would meet the 
entire North on this question, you will not back out from the 
first debate offered you. Yours, &c., A. Pryne. 



MoRRiSTOWN, Tenn., April 20, 1858. 
Rev. Abram Pryne — 
Sir — In your issue of an abolition paper, of the 10th ult., 
styled the " Central Reformer," and of which you seem to be 
the ostensible editor, you challenge me to meet you in debate on 
the slavery question. You say you are " a clergyman and an 
editor," and for your character, you refer me to several distin- 
guished abolitionists. 

There are two points of information I wish from you, before 
I respond to your challenge. First, what church are you con- 
nected with ? Next, are you a white man, or a gentleman of 
color? Respectfully, &c., W. G. Brownlow, 

Editor of Knoxville Whig. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 7 

MouRiSTOWN, Tenn,, April 20, 1858. 
Hon. J. R. Giddings — 
A clergyman at McGrawville, Courtlnnd county, who edits an 
abolition paper, styled the " Central Reformer," proposes a dis- 
cussion with me on the subject of Slavery, and refers me to you, 
and others, for his character. His name is Abram Pryne. Is 
he a gentleman, in good standing in his church? What church 
is he connected with ? 7* he a white man, or a man of color? 
Your early reply will oblige. 

Very respectfully, &c., 

W. G. Brownlow. 



Hall of Rep., U. S., April 24, 1858. 

Dear Sir — I have heard Abram Pryne preach several times, 

I understand him to be a preacher in good standing with the 

Congregational Church — at least I never heard aught against 

him, as a Christian, a gentleman, a scholar. Very respectfully, 

J. R. Giddings. 
W. G, Brownlow, Esq. 

Knoxville, April 26, 1858. 

Hev. Mr. Pryne — Your letter of the 14th inst. is before me, 
and I hasten to reply. My failing to answer your " challenge'' 
of March 10th, as set forth in the " Central Reformer," an Abo- 
lition paper, of which you seem to be the ostensible editor, has 
induced you to believe that I have "backed out," after my 
" blustering announcement" that I was willing to meet the entire 
North. 

I was in New Orleans when your characteristic, not to say 
"blustering," challenge came to hand, and upon my return, I 
started east of here, taking my exchange papers with me : and 
so soon as I opened your paper, and discovered your " chal- 
lenge," I addressed you from Morristown, in this State, and 
also your friend, Hon. Joshua R. Giddings. That letter I have 
no doubt has reached you before this time, and if so, has given 
you to understand that I am not going to "back out," as you no 
doubt desire me to do ! 

I think you have been a little too hasty in attributing coirarfZ/ce 
to me in this matter. I was one thousand miles distant, in the 



8 CORRESPONDENCE. 

sunny South, when your " challenge" came here to ray address, 
on a tour of observation among the negroes, and sugar and cot- 
ton plantations of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ala- 
bama, and I answered you with promptness, so soon as I re- 
turned and flashed my eye upon your very fair, liberal, and one- 
sided " challenge," prescribing the terms and ])lace of our dis- 
cussion ! 

In my letter to you, of the 20th inst., I requested to know, as 
a preliminary step towards engaging with you in "mortal com- 
bat," whether you were a white man or a gentleman of color. 
I must still know this fact, and I hope you will impart the infor- 
mation to me. My reason for desiring this information is, that 
I have heretofore understood there is an Abolition College in 
McGrawville, and that an educated negro is at its head. I 
thought it likely that you might be that man, and if so, it is due 
to me that I know the fact. 

To be candid with you — and I deal so with all men — the same 
mail bringing me your insolent letter, also brings one from Mr. 
Giddings ; and while he stated that you are a minister in good 
standing in the Congregational Church, he is silent as to your 
color, the only question I propounded to him with emphasis. 
This silence on his part has increased my suspicions as to your 
color. 

Hoping to hear from you soon, I am, 

Very respectfully, 

"VV. G. Brownlow, 
Editor of the Knoxville Whig. 



McGbawville, N. Y., April 28. 
Rev. W. G. Brownlow — 
Sir — I have your note of April 20th, and hasten to reply. 
The churches with v»'hich I act, are known as Union Churches. 
They are Independent Congregational in organization and 
government, and Evangelical in doctrine and practice. They 
differ from Congregationalism as to total independency, and on 
the subject of Christian union only. But of course you do not 
deem this point important, for in your first challenge you call 
out Theodore Parker by name, and you are not likely to meet a 
greater heretic than he in all the North ! 



CORRESPONDENCE. 9 

Your second Inquiry I can answer, by stating that my father 
is a Hollander by descent, and my mother's father was a Scotch- 
man, and though not a very white man, there is not a drop of 
negro blood in my veins. 

I shall hope to hear from you again by return mail. 

Yours, &c., Abram Prtne. 



McGrawville, N. Y., May 6th, 1858. 
Key. Mr. Brownlow — 

Sir — Your letter of the 26th came this morning. You have, 
probably, received my last before this, and are satisfied as to 
my color ; your excuse for not replying sooner to my challenge, 
is satisfactory, and I withdraw any intimation contained in my 
letter as to your "backing out,'' Your hint that I desire you 
to " back out," I shall answer in deeds rather than words. 

You may select the place anywhere in the North, or North- 
west, from Augusta, Maine, to Chicago, as you please. 

Let me suggest one or two incidental questions : — 

1. Shall the debate be published? 

2. Shall admission be free or otherwise. A fee at the door to 
pay expenses is common at the North. 

Yours in hope of a speedy and definite reply, 

A. Pryne. 



Knoxville, May 15th, 1858. 

Rev. Abram Pryne — Your letters of April 28th, and May 6th, 
are both before me. My delay in answering is because of my 
absence from home again, in attendance at the meeting of the 
General Conference of the Methodist Church, South, still in ses- 
sion at Nashville. 

Your statements as to your Church relations and color, are 
perfectly satisfactory, and you may prepare to meet me ; but you 
will have to wait on me for a short time on account of engage- 
ments I must comply with. This will only give you the more 
time for preparation ; and you will please not accuse me of 
egotism when I advise you to be fully ready, as I purpose to 
give you battle after a style you have not been accustomed to — 



10 CORRESPONDENCE. 

not intending to be outdone by you, however, in courtesy and 
fairness. 

1. I will claim the right of meeting you on Mason and 
Dixon's Line, say in the great Free Soil city of Philadelphia, 
which will give me twice the distance to travel that j-ou will 
have. Pennsylvania is a Northern State — Philadelphia can 
accommodate us with a suitable Hall — and I presume you can- 
not object to the place. 

2. As I do not go into this fight as the representative of any 
Church or political organization, South, but upon my own hook, 
as a Southern man, and the advocate of Southern institutions, I 
will not be limited to anj pariicular form of discussion, but will 
claim the right to discuss the whole Slavery question, contrast- 
ing the morality and integrity of Northern men, with the morals 
and integrity of those of the South. 

3. I am willing to open the debate, and give you the conclud- 
ing speech, but I will protract it until I announce to you and the 
audience, that I am through. I will not be limited to any time 
under an hour, in each of my speeches, allowing you the same 
time that I occupy in reply ; and when, in some instances, I 
chance to exceed one hour, it shall not be to the extent of more 
than thirty minutes, say, in all, one hour and a-half 

4. While I am speaking, I will deny the right of interrupting 
me, but will concede to you the right to correct any and every- 
thing I may say. On the other hand, while you are speaking, 
I will not interrupt you, nor tolerate it in any friend of mine, or 
of the South. 

5. I will not suffer any other person to participate in the 
debate, but I will concede to you the privilege of surrounding 
yourself with all the anti-Slavery leaders at the North, and with 
counselling them, and being prompted by them at intervals ; 
and when we are through, if any one of them shall think you 
have not done me or the South justice, I will renew the contest 
with him. 

6. As it regards puUishing the debates, I propose to print in 
a book, all that I say, and just as I say it. I suggest that the 
whole be published under one cover. 

7. As it regards " a fee at the doors," I would prefer that it 
be "a free fight;" but if we are required to pay hall rent, and 



CORRESPONDENCE. 11 

other incidental, but necessary expenses, we shall have to re- 
quire the doors to be closed, and sell tickets of admission. I am 
too poor myself, to be at any other expenses than my tavern 
bills and travelling expenses. But this vre will agree upon 
when we meet, which must be a few days in advance of the 
discussion. 

Hoping you will accept the fair and liberal terms laid down, 
and respond without delay, I will, upon receipt of your reply, 
publish the intended debate, and the time at which it is to come 
off. Your obedient servant, W. G. Brownlow. 

Editor of the Knoxville Whig. 



McGuAwviLLE, June 1st, 1858. 
Kev. W. G. Brownlow — 

I have your letter of May 15th, and hasten to reply. One or 
two paragraphs of your letter need explanation ; you say you 
"will not be limited to any particular form of discussion." Am 
I to infer from this, that you now decline debating the question 
which I challenged you to debate ; namely, whether American 
slavery ought to be abolished or perpetuated ? Or am I to under- 
stand this paragraph to mean, that under that question, you 
simply ask a wide range of debate ? If the latter is all you 
mean, still agreeing that the question shall stand as I first pro- 
posed, I have no fault to find. 

2. As to the length of time the debate shall continue, I have 
nothing to say. 

3. I should much prefer that the length of the speeches should 
be agreed upon on the start — and not varied from. 

4. I agree to your proposition as to interruptions. 

5. I will not consent that any other person shall take part in 
the debate on either side. 

6. As to publishing, I propose that each of us employ a ver- 
batim reporter — and each revise his own speeches after the 
reporter has written them out — and that the book he published , 
stereotyped, and each edition be equally divided between us, 
each paying half the expense. 

7. I am equally obliged, with yourself, to make the debate 



12 CORRESPONDENCE. 

pay its expenses — and think a fee at the door will secure as 
large an audience as any room will hold. 

I should prefer going to New York, but will not object to 
going to Philadelphia. 

If then, I understand right, that you accept my challenge, and 
that the question shall be stated — " Ought American Slavery 
to be perpetuated," or " Ought American Slavery to be 
abolished," with the added agreement that the debate shall give 
you the widest latitude, to discuss all phases of the slavery ques- 
tion—with this understanding, I say, you may give notice of 
the debate. But there must be a well defined question, under 
which I agree to give you the widest latitude. 

Your notice as to where the debate shall take place, must 
reach me four weeks before the time appointed. 

Please answer immediately. 

My reply has been delayed a few days by my absence in 
Ohio. Yours, &c., A. Pryne. 



Knoxville, June 10, 1858. 

Rev. A. Pryne — Your letter of the 1st inst, post-marked same 
date, came to hand to-day, nine days out, and I reply by the 
first mail going east. 

1 mean in ray letter to you, of the 15th ult., that under the 
question you proposed, " Ought American slavery to be perpetu- 
ated ?" I shall claim a wide range in the debate. In other 
words, I mean that I will go into an investigation of the whole 
SUBJECT of slavery, Contrasting the consistency and morality 
of the North, with that of the South, I mean, further, that in 
my speeches, /will be the judge of what is to the point, and will 
not be ruled out of order, or off of the subject, by any moderators, 
or judges of the debate. As we are both preachers, I will use a 
figure that we fully understand : You may select any Text you 
please, but in my sermons upon that text, I will preach what seems 
to me to be gospel. If I say nothing to the purpose, and dodge the 
issues, it will be to your advantage, both before the audience, 
and in the published debates ; for I will see that my speeches 
appear in the book just as I deliver them, and I hope you will do 
the same. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 18 

If the proprietors of the largest Hall in Philadelphia, will re- 
quire pay from us, for its use, &c., as they doubtless will, we of 
course must charge an entrance fee, or for a season ticket. I 
am a poor man, and not able to pay out several hundred dollars 
for Hall rent, for a week, to accommodate others. I have served 
the public all my lifetime, and have never turned my attention 
to the business of making money. 

As I suppose we now understand each other fully, write me 
that all is right, and I will announce the time, giving you as 
long a notice in advance as you desire.. 

I have the honor to be, &c. 

W. G. Brownlow. 



McGrawyille, N. Y.. June 18. 
Rev. W. G. Brownlow : 

Dear Sir : — I have your letter in reply to my last. It is quite 
satisfactory on the point of my inquiry, and you may give notice 
of the debate, according to our understanding. 

I have said but little to you about my course of argument. I now 
desire to say, that with me, the debate is quite other than a con- 
test between the two sections of the Union. I shall by no means 
undertake to defend the North, or condemn the South, in all 
things. It is the institution of slavery, and not the South, upon 
which I make war. I look upon the course of many Northern 
men, both in politics and religion, with shame and scorn, and 
shall only defend what is right in the North. — But of course I 
accord to you the right to discuss side issues as much as you 
please, reserving to myself the right to reply or not as I may 
think best. 

I represent no party in politics or religion, and am alone re- 
sponsible for my views. As to expenses, I presume that I am 
far less able to bear them than yourself. A fee at the door is 
quite proper, and if more than enough to pay expenses can be 
thus raised, it will be right and just, and no drawback in a 
Northern audienoe. I think we need feel no delicacy about that 
matter. As to the time, I have only this to say, that my health 
is not robust, and I am about going to a Water Cure for two or 
three weeks. But if I have four weeks after your final notice, it 
will be enough. 

2 



14 CORRESPONDENCE. 

I must not debate all day, every day. — Afternoons and even- 
ings will be all that I can do, leaving us the mornings for rest. 
You vrill have the advantage of me in physical strength, to say 
nothing of your superior mental abilities. 

One thing about the Hall. It must be open to all, of every 
grade and color who buy tickets. You will see at once, that I 
cannot consent to any restrictions here. This must be stated in 
our contract for a Hall. 

You will be quite as free from any prejudice from a Philadel- 
phia audience as myself. Every Northern audience will hear 
you with entire respect, and no effort of mine shall be wanting 
in that direction. My sense of honor would prompt this course. 

I should prefer 30 minutes as the general length of speeches 
because I think it would suit the audience better. But I will 
not contend for this. 

Of course, if we can mutually agree when the debate shall 
close, that would be well, but if not each one must quit when he 
thinks best. 

I suppose that it would not be best to permit the entire debate 
to be reported for the press, for that would injure the sale of our 
book. But upon that we can consult. 

Write me freely anything that strikes you. 

Kespectfully yours, 

A. Pryne. 



Knoxville, July 8th, 1858. 

Rev. A. Pryne — Returning from the counties below me, I 
hasten to yours of the 18th ult. You say your purpose is, in our 
forthcoming debate, not to make war upon the South, but upon 
" the institution of slavery." We are unable in the South, to 
distinguish between a war upon the South, and this institution. 
However, as our general arrangements have been agreed upon, 
you and I must make these fine-spun distinctions, when we come 
to measure arms in debate. 

The debate must be carried on in day time, and I purpose to 
make only one speech each day. As to the length, I cannot be 
limited, as heretofore agreed upon, but it shall be of reasonable 
length. I am willing that it be in the after part of the day. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 15 

As to the time of closing, I can only say, I will wind up, when 
in my own judgment, I have covered the whole ground. As to 
reporting our debate for the newspapers, we can't prevent that 
if we would. But we must first secure the copyright, and pre- 
vent any other publication than newspaper reports. 

The debate will open on Tuesday, the seventh of September, 
and I hope we may able to conclude the same week. 
Very respectfully, &c. 

W. G. Brownlow. 



American House, Sept. 3d, 1858. 

Rev. A. Pryne. — I arrived in this city this afternoon, and 
learned you were here. By speaking both too long and too loud, 
and by over-heating myself in a controversy during the last 
summer, I have brought upon myself bronchitis, rendering it 
impossible for me to speak, or even converse, without an effort 
somewhat painful. I have resorted to cupping, to the external 
use of Croton Oil, and other remedies, prescribed by physicians, 
and thus far all to no purpose. With the exception of this 
almost incurable hoarseness, I am well. I come here to let you 
know of my condition, and to suggest, and even ask a postpone- 
ment of our discussion of the Slavery question. I regret the 
disappointment as much as any one living ; and I will add, that 
it is the first time in thirty years I have been without a strong 
and powerful voice. 

But if you think we must have it over, now that we are here, 
I am willing to go into it, and employ some competent man to 
read for me, as great as the disadvantages will be to me. I look 
more to the result of the publication of our speeches, in the same 
volume, than to any momentary effect upon a Philadelphia 
audience. In other words, I am willing to stand or fall by the 
matter of my speeches, as, from first to last, they shall cover the 
whole ground, concluding each speech with such replies to your 
remarks, as I may deem necessary. 

Very respectfully, &c., 

W. G. Brownlow. 



16 CORRESPONDENCE 

Philadelphia, Sept. 3d. 

Rev. W. G, Brownlow. — I have this moment received your 
note and hasten to reply. I deeply regret your loss of voice, but 
as we have both travelled far to meet in this debate, and as pub- 
lic expectation will be sadly disappointed if it fail, I readily 
accept your very honorable proposition to employ a second per- 
son to read your speeches, and am ready to do all in my power 
to accommodate myself to your misfortune. Permit me to ex- 
press the hope that you will be able to produce a reader who 
will do justice to your speeches in the rendering. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c., 

Abram Pryne. 



SLAVERY DISCUSSION. 

OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 



Affirmative, I. — By W. G. Brownlow. 

Respected Auditors : Before I enter on the dis- 
cussion of this important question, and various other 
kindred topics connected with, and growing out of this 
question, I wish to apprise this audience of what they 
will have discovered before I take my seat — namely, 
that in my public addresses, no matter what my topics 
may be, I do not present my themes with an eloquence 
that charms, with that critical acumen that fascinates, 
or with that richness of diction that captivates an 
audience. This I regret, as there is no power like 
that of oratory. Csesar controlled men by exciting 
their fears ; Cicero by captivating their affections and 
swaying their passions. The influence of the one 
perished with its author ; that of the other continues to 
this day, and will continue with public speakers to the 
end of time. 

Believing that I address an appreciative audience, 

who are here to learn facts in reference to " the 

peculiar institution," and the great question of the 

Nineteenth Century, I shall look more to ivhat I say, 

2* (17) 



18 A r r I R M A T I Y E , I . 

than to my manner of saying it — more, if you please, 
to the subject matter of my speeches, during this dis- 
cussion, than to any exhibition of rare powers of 
analysis, wit, satire, or remarkable force and beauty 
of language. I deem this the more important, at least 
on my part, since this whole discussion is to go out to 
the world in the same bound volume, and be read by 
thousands, even after my reverend competitor and I 
shall "cease at once to walk and live." 

In advocating the affirmative of this question, it is 
not meant that I am to be restricted to the narrow 
limits that technically accurate terms would fix, de- 
fining the limits of the debate. I may be allowed to 
remark, that in the correspondence which brought 
about this discussion, and which has been read in your 
hearing, I resisted the efforts of the gentleman — if 
indeed he intended such a thing — to tie up the dis- 
cussion by limiting me to his text, by the strict rules 
of sermonizing. 

Not only will I throughout this discussion openly 
and boldly take the ground that Slavery as it exists 
in America, ought to he perpetuated, but that slavery 
is an established and inevitable condition to human 
society. I will maintain the ground that God always 
intended the relation of master and slave to exist ; that 
Christ and the early teachers of Christianity, found 
slavery differing in no material respect from American 
slavery, incorporated into every department of society ; 
that in the adoption of rules for the government of 
society, and of the church, they provided for the rights 
of oivners, and the wants of slaves; that slavery 
having existed ever since the first organization of 



BY W . O . B R O AV N L AV . 



19 



society, it will exist to the end of time. And in the 
wide range I propose to take in this debate, I shall 
defend the South, and make war upon the abolitionism 
of the I^orth — covering, if you please, the whole 
ground of difference between the two sections. 

Whoever, then, reflects upon the nature of man, 
will find him to be almost entirely the creature of 
circumstances; his habits and sentiments are, in a 
great measure, the growth of adventitious circumstances 
and causes — hence the endless variety and condition 
of our species. That race of men in our country, 
known as abolitionists, free soilers, or as black re- 
publicans, look upon any deviation from the constant 
round in which they have been spinning out the con- 
tentious thread of their existence, as a departure from 
nature's great system ; and from a known principle of 
our nature, the first impulse of these unmitigated 
fanatics is to condemn. 

It is thus that a man born and reared in a free state, 
looks upon slavery as unnatural and horrible, and in 
violation of every law of justice and humanity ! And 
it is not unusual to hear bigots of this character, in 
their churches at the North, imploring the Divine wrath 
to let fall the consuming fires of heaven upon that 
great Sodom and Gomorrah of the New World — all 
that vast extent of territory, south of Mason and Dix- 
on's Line, where this horrible practice is known to 
prevail 1 I hope my worthy competitor, who will 
follow me in this discussion, has never been steeped to 
the nose and chin in unwarrantable prejudices against 
the South. 

When an unprejudiced and candid mind examines 



20 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

into the past history of our race, and learns the fact 
which history develops, as the honest enquirer will, 
that a majority of mankind were slaves, he will be 
driven to the conclusion I have Ions; since reached ; 
namely, that the world, when first peopled by God 
himself, was not a world of freemen, but of SLAVES — 
the Declaration of American Independence, as usually 
construed, to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Slavery was really established and sanctioned by 
Divine authority, among even God's chosen people — 
the favored children of Israel. Abraham, the founder 
of this interesting nation, and the chosen servant of 
the Most High, was the lawful owner, at one time, of 
more slaves than any cotton-planter in South Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi ; or any tobacco or 
sugar planter in Virginia or Louisiana. This may 
strike you as a bold assertion, at first glance ; but my 
competitor, who is familiar with the Scriptures, will 
regret, that there is more truth than poetry in the de- 
claration. 

That magnificent shrine, the gorgeous temple of 
Solomon, commenced and completed under the pious 
promptings of religion and ancient free-masonry, was 
reared alone by the hands of slaves ! Involuntary 
servitude, reduced to a science, existed in ancient 
Assyria and Babylon. Egypt's venerable and enduring 
pyramids were all reared by the hands of slaves, and 
black negroes at that ! The ten tribes of Israel were 
carried off to Assyria by Shalmanezar, and the two 
strong tribes of Judah were subsequently carried in 
triumph by Nebuchadnezzar to end their days in Baby- 
lon as slaves, and to labor to adorn the city. Ancient 



B Y W. G . B R W N L W. 21 

Phoenicia and Carthage, were literally overrun with 
slavery; the slave population outnumbering the free 
and the owners of slaves, nearly three to one ! The 
Greeks and Trojans, at the siege of Troy, were attended 
with equal numbers of their slaves, to themselves. 
Athens, and Sparta, and Thebes — indeed, the whole 
Grecian and Roman worlds — had more slaves than 
freemen. And in those ages which succeeded the ex- 
tinction of the Roman empire in the West, slaves, 
abject and degraded slaves, were the most numerous 
class. Even in the days of civilization and christian 
light, which revolutionized governments, laboring serfs 
and abject slaves were distributed throughout Eastern 
Europe, and Western Asia — showing that slavery 
existed throughout these boundless regions. In Cliina, 
the worst forms of slavery have existed since the earli- 
est history of the '' Celestial Empire." And when we 
turn to Africa, we find slavery, in all its most revolting 
forms, existing throughout its whole extent, the slaves 
outnumbering the free-men three to one ! Looking 
then, to the whole world, I may with confidence assert, 
as I do to-day in your midst, that slavery in its worst 
forms, subdues by far the largest portion of the human 

race. 

Now, my respected auditors, the inquiry is, how has 
slavery thus risen and spread over our whole earth ? 
I answer — by the laws of war — the state of property 
— the feebleness of governrnents — the thirst for bar- 
gain and sale — the increase of crime — and last, but 
not least, by and with the consent, knowledge, and 
approbation of Almighty God ! Slavery, then, is an 
^ established and inevitable condition to human society. 



22 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

I do not speak of tlie name, but the fact. But the 
Abolition philanthropists of the United States care 
nothing for facts. They deal in terms and fictions. 
It is not the institution of American slavery, but the 
word " slavery" which shocks their tender sensibilities, 
and their fruitful imaginations associate it with " hydras 
and chimeras dire." 

In "that sacred book from Heaven bestowed," 
usually called the Bible, this call is made upon slaves, 
or servants, as you may choose to regard them : 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their 
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of Grod and 
his doctrine be not blasphemed." — 1 Tim. vi : 1. 

The Scriptures, for the most part, were written in 
the Hebrew and Greek languages, and I flatter myself 
that my worthy competitor is familiar with these lan- 
guages. If so, he knows that the word here rendered 
servants means slaves converted to the Christian faith ; 
and the word yoke signifies the state of slavery, in 
which Christ and the Apostles found the world involved, 
when the Christian Church was first organized. 

By the word rendered masters, we are to understand 
the heathen masters of those christianized slaves. 
Even these, in such circumstances, and under such 
domination, are commanded to treat their masters with 
all honor and respect, that the name of God, by which 
they w^ere called, and the doctrine of God, to wit : 
Christianity, which they had professed, might not be 
blasphemed — might not be evil spoken of in conse- 
quence of their improper conduct. Civil rights are 
never abolished by any communication from God's 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 23 

Spirit ; and those fiery bigots at tlie North, who propose 
to abolish the institution of slavery, as it exists in the 
South, are not following the dictates of God's spirit or 
law. And if the Rev. gentleman who is to follow me 
in this debate, will allow me to instruct him in political 
economy, and Christian theology, I will here distinctly 
announce to him, that the civil state in which a man 
was before his conversion, is not altered by that con- 
version ; nor does the grace of God absolve him from 
any claims which the State, his neighbor, or lawful 
owner may have had on him. All these outward things 
continue unaltered; hence, if a man be under the 
sentence of death for a capital offence, and God see fit 
to convert him, which is sometimes the case, he is not 
released from suffering the extreme penalty of the law ! 
The Church of Christ, when originally constituted, 
claimed no right, as an ecclesiastical organization, to 
interfere with the civil government, as the united 
Churches of New England are now doing. This was 
the principle upon which the Church was founded, as 
distinctly announced by its immortal Head. When 
Christ was doomed by a cruel Roman law to its most 
ignominious condemnation, he did not so much as 
resist it, because it was law, nor did he complain of it 
as oppressive. I hope my reverend adversary will bear 
this in mind ! 

''Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and 
called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the 
Jews ? . . . Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this 
world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my 
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; 
but now is my kingdom not from hence. ... To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
that I should bear witness to the truth." — John xviii. oo-o7. 



24 AFFIRMATIVE,!. 

Sir [turning to Mr. Pr^ne), when Christ came into 
the world on the business of His mission, He found 
the Jewish people subject to the Roman kingdom; and 
in no instance did he counsel the Jews to rebellion, or 
incite them to throw of the Roman yoke, as do the 
vagabond philanthro'imts of the Free States of this 
Confederacy, in reference to the existing laws of the 
United States, in reference to slavery. Christ was by 
lineal descent "The King of the Jews," but be did 
not assert his temporal power; so far from it, he 
actually refused to be crowned in that right. 

Under the Roman law, human liberty was held by 
no more certain tenure than the whim of the sovereign 
power, protected by no definite constitution whatever. 
Slavery constituted the most powerful and essential 
element of the government ; and that slavery was of 
the most cruel character, and gave the masters abso- 
lute discretion over the lives of the slaves. 

This is not the case in any Slave State in this Union, 
and never can be. On the contrary, laws exist in all 
the Southern States punishing cruel treatment of slaves, 
as other misdemeanors ; and in some of our States, my 
own beloved Tennessee among the rest, owners of 
slaves are liable to an indictment before a grand jury, 
for failing to clothe them decently. And for the mur- 
der of a slave, unless it be done in self-defence, mas- 
ters and overseers have been frequently executed. 
This was done, but a few years since, in South Caro- 
lina ! 

But to return to the argument. Notwithstanding 
all this, under the Roman laws, Christ did not make 
war upon the existing government, nor did He denounce 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 25 

the rulers for conferring sucli powers ; though He looked 
ui3on cruel legislation in the light in which the charac- 
ter of His mission required. And although the Church 
itself was not what it should have been, in no instance 
did Christ denounce that. The only denunciations the 
Saviour ever uttered, were those against the doctors 
and lawyers, the ministers and expounders of the Jew- 
ish code of ecclesiastical law. For this he was cruci- 
fied. And the Jewish anti-slavery gamblers, who put 
him to death, divided out his garments, as you recol- 
lect, casting lots for them. And from that day to this, 
whenever you meet with one of these Abolition Jews, 
he is engaged in the clothing business, either retaihno- 
or wholesaling "ready-made clothing." 

But allow me to present the case of the inspired 
apostle to the Gentiles, as proof more palpable and 
overwhelming, on this very point. He had been 
falsely accused, cruelly imprisoned, and unjustly ar- 
raigned ; and that, too, before a licentious governor, a 
tyrannical and dissipated ruler, and an unprincipled 
infidel. The Roman law in force at the time arrested 
the freedom of speech, denied the rights of conscience, 
and even forbade the free expression of opinion in all 
matters conflicting with the provisions of the laws of 
the Roman government. In his defence before Felix, 
Paul never so much as speaks of Roman laiv, though 
"well versed in it; but ''he reasoned of righteous }7 ess, 
and temperance, and the judgment to come.'' Here 
was a suitable occasion to condemn the regulations, 
and to question the authority, of the villanous statutes 
of Rome ; but, instead of this, Paul plead his rights 
under the unjust regulations of the law. He charged 
3 



26 AFFIRMATIVE,!. 

Felix with official delinquency, with 'personal crime, 
and, as a ?»«?z, he held him up to public scorn, and 
threatened him with the vengeance of a justly oiFended 
God! He appealed to the law, and justified himself 
hy the law. He claimed the rights of a '^ Roman citi- 
zen'' — demanded the protection due to a Eoman citi- 
zen — and he scorned to find fault with the law, cruel 
and unjust as he knew it to be. And the consequence 
was, that the licentious infidel who ruled, ''trembled'' 
in his presence. 

The views I have here submitted, are not at all new, 
but have been uniformly acted upon by evangelical 
Christians in all ages of the world. Since the days 
of St. Paul and Simon Peter, no reformer has appeared 
who was more violent than that great and good man, 
Martix Luther. John Calvin possessed a revolu- 
tionary spirit ; he fought everything he believed to be 
wrong ; he was unmitigated in his severity. Yet nei- 
ther of these great and justly distinguished men ever 
made war upon the existing laws of their respective 

countries. 

John Wesley was the great reformer of the past 
century : he reformed the whole machinery of the 
modern Church of Christ ; and his doctrines and man- 
ner of conducting revivals are now leading elements 
of American Christianity. But Mr. Wesley never 
made war upon the English government, under which 
he lived and died. On the other hand, it is a matter 
of serious complaint among sectarians not friendly to 
the spread of Methodism, that Mr. Wesley wrote ela- 
borately against the war of the Revolution. Mr. Wes- 
ley believed it to be religiously his duty tQ sustain the 



BY W. G . B R O W N L W. 27 

government under tlie reign of George III. ; and liad 
I been placed in lils circumstances, I should most un- 
questionably have imitated his pious example. And 
although devoted to law and order, and opposed to all 
resistance to existing laws, Mr. Wesley's letter to Lord 
North, as British Premier, and a similar one to the 
Earl of Dartmouth, as Secretary of these Colonies, 
dated June 15, 1773, but recently brought to light by 
George Smith, Fellow of the Royal Society of Great 
Britain, show that Mr. Wesley did not entertain towards 
the American colonies the hostilities that have been 
attributed to him. In those letters he condemns the 
jjolici/ of Great Britain towards the American colonies, 
and predicted just what came to pass — actually sympa- 
thizing with the Colonies ! 

John Wesley, in his troubles at Savannah, Georgia 
— like Paul before the licentious governor, appealed to 
the laiv, and sought by every means in his power to be 
tried under the laiv, asking only the privilege of being 
heard in his own defence ! And as a propagator of 
gospel truth, he thus adhered to existing laws, '^ that 
the name of God and his doctrine he not blasphemed.'" 

One word more as to Mr. Wesley : He is quoted by 
Abolition Methodists at the North, against the Metho- 
dists of the South. And for aught I know to the con- 
trary, the Reverend gentleman who debates with me 
here, may be intending to confront me with some quo- 
tation from the pen of Mr. Wesley. What Mr. Wesley 
has said upon this subject, relates chiefly to the African 
slave trade, an iniquitous traffic I shall by no means 
attempt to justify. But it is a matter of record, that 
when Mr. Wesley returned from Savannah to England, 



28 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

after a residence of two years in Georgia, in his Report 
to the London Board of Missions who sent him out lie 
advised the purchase of more negroes for the use of the 
American 3Iissions — saying that a small experiment 
in that way had worked well — that while they were 
adapted to the climate, and their labor proved valuable, 
the Missionaries could be serviceable to them in a 
spiritual point of view ! Am I asked for my authority 
for making this statement, I refer to the Report of 
Mr. Wesley to the Board, after his return to London? 
which was in 1739. I also refer to the minutes of the 
Board, before whom he appeared in person, and where 
a record is made of this fact ! 

The essential principles of the great Moral Law de- 
livered to Moses by God himself, are set forth in what 
is called the Tenth Commandment, and will be found 
in the 20th chapter of the book of Exodus : 

''Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his 
maid-scrvanf, nor his ox nor his ass, nor any thing that is 
thy neighbor's/' 

The only true interpretation of this portion of the 
word of God is, that the species of property herein men- 
tioned, are laivful, and that all men are forbid to disturb 
others in the lawful enjoyment of their property. " Man- 
servants and maid-servants," are distinctly consecrated 
as jjroperty^ and guaranteed to man for his exclusive 
benefit — jjroof that slavery was ordained by God himself. 
I have seen learned dissertations from the pens of Anti- 
slavery men — and I expect to hear one equally learned, 
before this discussion closes — setting forth that the term 
'^servant'' and not " slave' is used here. To this I reply, 



B Y W . G . B R W N L W . 29 

once for all, tliat both the Hebrew and Greek words 
translated ^' servant^'" mean ^' slave ' also, and are more 
frequently used in this sense than in the former. Beside, 
the Hebrew Scriptures teach us, that God especially 
authorized his peculiar people to purchase " bond-men 
FOR ever" ; and if to be in hondage for ever, does not 
constitute slavery as perpetual as American slavery, I 
yield the point to the gentleman who proposes to abolish 
the latter ! 

The visionary notions of piety and philanthropy en- 
tertained by many men at the North, lead them to 
resist the Fugitive Slave Law of this government, and 
even to violate the tenth Commandment, by stealing 
our "men-servants and maid-servants" and running 
them into what they call free territory, upon their 
"under-ground railroads !" Nay, the villanoiis piety 
of some has led them to contribute Sharp's rifles and 
Holy Bibles, to send the uncircumcised Philistines of 
our New England States, into "bleeding Kansas," to 
shoot down the Christian owners of slaves, and then to 
perform religious ceremonies over their dead bodies ! 
Clergymen lay aside their Bibles at the North, and 
apply forty imrson "power to the President of the United 
States, to induce him to reverse his decrees in reference 
to Kansas matters ! Even females, as in the case of 
that model beauty, Harriet Beecher Stoive, unsex them- 
selves, to aid in carrying on this horrid and slanderous 
warfare against the slaveholders of the South ! English 
travellers, steeped to their very eyebrows in prejudices 
against this government, and our domestic and political 
institutions, have written books upon this subject, and 
our Northern neighbors have circulated them. The 
3* 



30 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

Halls, Hamilton?, Trollopes, Thackerays, and Misses 
Martineaus, et id omne genus, all have slandered tlie 
South, and misrepresented her institutions. These 
English writers all denounce Slavery and eulogize 
Democracy, as though an Englishman could be a Demo- 
crat, in the modern, vulgar, bogus sense of that much- 
abused term, and still be a consistent man ! 

But, as already stated, I do not propose in this dis- 
cussion to enter into any defence of the African slave 
trade, although the evils of it are greatly exaggerated. 
Its evils, and cruelties, its barbarities, which are bad 
enough at best, are not justified by the most ultra 
Southern slaveholder. The vile traffic — for such I 
characterize it — was abolished by the United States, 
even before the Parliament of Great Britain prohibited 
it. All the civilized governments in the world have 
subsequently prohibited this trade — some of the more 
influential and powerful of them having declared it 
piracy, and covered the African seas w^ith armed ves- 
sels to prevent it ! 

This trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings 
of mankind, dates its origin as far back as the year 
1442. Antony Gonzales, a Portuguese mariner, while 
exploring the coast of Africa, was the first to steal some 
3Ioors, and was subsequently forced by Prince Henry 
of Portugal to carry them back to Africa. In the 
year 1502 the Spaniards began to steal negroes, and 
employ them in the mines of Hispaniola, Cuba, and 
Jamaica. In 1517 the Emperor Charles Y. granted 
a patent to certain privileged persons, to steal exelu- 
sively a supply of 4000 negroes annually for these 
islands ! 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 31 

At the commencement of the present century, the 
slave trade was carried on by Turkey, Holland, England, 
France, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, the United States, 
and Central America. In all of those countries, how- 
ever, the trade has been suppressed, except in the 
Island of Cuba, and it is carried on there, as it has 
been for years, only by the evasion of law. And it is 
due to the truth of history to state, that no two men 
now dead or alive, have done more to put an end to 
this brutal and unchristian commerce, than Lords Pal- 
merston and John Russell, for neither of whom have 
I ever entertained any great regard. 

In 1807 the American Congress passed a law, which 
effectually put a stop to the slave trade, by imposing 
a fine of $20,000 and a forfeiture of the vessel, upon 
all persons concerned in fitting out any vessel for the 
slave trade ; while the importer of a negro from a 
foreign country, if convicted of selling him in the 
United States, was, by that Act, subjected to a fine 
of $10,000, and imprisonment for a term of years, not 
less than five, nor exceeding ten. 

And now, after a lapse of half a century of prohibi- 
tion, an attempt was made in Congress, last winter was 
a year ago, to revive this trade, which was negatived 
by a vote of 183 to 8, in the popular branch of our 
National Legislature, in the adoption of the following 
resolution, offered by CoL. James L. Orr, of South 
Carolina, and at present the Democratic Speaker of 
the House : 

'' Resolved, That it is inexpedient, unwise, and con- 
trary TO THE SETTLED POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES, tO 

repeal the laios prohibiting the African Slave Trade." 



82 

With pride and pleasure, I announce that this reso- 
lution came from South Carolina — that out of the 
thirteen slave states represented in Congress, there 
were but eight votes against this resolution — and that 
these were ultra Southern men, from Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, and Louisiana, strongly tinctured with fire-eating 
and disunion sentiments. I may possibly be told that 
repeated efforts have been made in the several sessions 
of the " SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONVENTION," to revive 
the African slave trade. In reply, I have to say, that 
these efforts as repeatedly failed. I was at different 
times a member of that body, and I therefore speak 
advisedly. 

African slaves were first imported into America in 
1620, a century after their introduction into the West 
Indies. The first cargo of 20 Africans, by a Dutch 
vessel, was brought up the James River, into Virginia, 
and sold out as slaves. Las Casas, a Spanish priest, 
superintended the sale of the first cargo, and shared 
largely in the profits. 

England then being the most commercial of Euro- 
pean nations, engrossed the trade ; and from 1680 to 
1780, one hundred years, there were imported into the 
British Possessions alone, two millions of slaves — 
making an average annual importation of more than 
20,000 ! 

The States of this Union, north of Mason and Dix- 
on's Line, commonly called the New England States, 
alias the Free States, were never, to any great extent, 
slaveholding. No sir-ee, {turning to Mr. Pryne) their 
virtuous and pious minds were chiefly exercised in 
slave-stealing and slave- selling ! To Old England, the 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 33 

mother country, our Pilgrim Fathers of the New Eng- 
land States, are indebted for their knowledge of the 
art of slave-stealing ; and to the pious, God-fearing, 
and liberty-loving New England States, are we of the 
South, wholly indebted for our slaves ! They stole the 
African from his native land, and sold him into bondage 
for the sake of gain. In 1711, there was a slave depot 
established in New York, in what is now known as 
Wall Street, and slaves captured on the Western coast 
of Africa, were landed there by New England vessels, 
to supply the Southern market ! About the same time, 
another slave depot was opened in the God-fearing 
and liberty-loving city of Boston, near to where the 
"Franklin House" now stands! They kept but few 
of their captives among themselves, because it was not 
profitable to use negro labor in the cold and sterile 
regions of New England. And when they enacted 
laws in the New England States, abolishing slavery, 
they hurried their negroes round South, in sail vessels, 
and sold them into bondage to Maryland, Virginia, 
and the Carolinas, before their laws could go into ope- 
ration ! What an unmitigated generation of hypocrites ! 
They stole and sold into perpetual bondage, a race of 
human beings it was not profitable to keep, and for 
whom they now, like so many graceless pirates, refuse 
all ^Yarranty. And what few American ships are in 
the trade now, at the peril of piracy, are New England 
ships. 

Nay, it is asserted — and I have nowhere seen it 
contradicted, that as many as seventy-five vessels were 
fitted out for the slave trade in the United States, dur- 
ing the year 1857, and every one of these in northern 



34 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

ports ! I have no doubt — though I cannot prove the 
fact— that a portion of these are owned and manned by 
the hypocritical freedom-shriekers of the Northern 
States, who desire to recover the several sums of money 
they have contributed, under excitement, to aid the 
cause of ''bleeding Kansas." 

But I cannot dismiss this branch of my subject, 
without going somewhat into detail, as it regards the 
course pursued by northern men. From 1804 to 1807, 
a period of three years, there were imported into the 
little town of Bristol, in the State of Rhode Island — a 
seaport that did not then contain a population of 2000 
gouls — as many as 3914 slaves, all from the coast of 
Africa ! During the same period, there were brought 
into Newport, a town within twelve or fifteen miles of 
Bristol, in the same State, now the famous and attract- 
ive watering-place, 3488 slaves, all from the coast of 
Africa ! Providence, in the same State, received 559, 
also from the coast of Africa, ^n^ feloniously obtained 
at that ! Hartford, in Connecticut, the ancient head- 
quarters of Federalism, whose extreme piety and "Blue 
Laws" led them to fine a man for kissing his wife on 
Sunday — this town received 250 of these stolen negroes 
from the coast of Africa, and was as im]Jortu7iate in 
her demand for more, as was the celebrated beggar of 
London, in soliciting charities ! And the transcend- 
antly pious, and God-fearing city of Boston, received 
1000 in the same length of time, on consignment, all 
from the coast of Africa ! 

The slaves brought into Rhode Island, were but a 
small portion of the number her citizens were stealing 
from the coast of Africa, and carrying directly to the 



B y W . G . B R W N L O W . 35 

"West Indies, and into the ports of Maryland, Virginia, 
the Carolinas, and Georgia ! As many as fifty -nine 
slave ships belonged, at the time, to the little State of 
Ehode Island, not larger than some of our counties in 
Tennessee. Some of the largest fortunes which have 
descended to her citizens, were created by this nefa- 
rious traffic ; and but a few years ago, there were men 
in that State, among the most honored and wealthy of 
the inhabitants, who had been active participants in 
the trade, and owned the identical ships that brought 
these human cargoes to our shores ! One of her Sena- 
tors in Congress, as late as 1827, commenced his career 
in life as a slaver, between the coast of Africa and the 
West India islands ; and he had ships engaged in the 
traffic, until it was suppressed by the Act of Congress 
already cited ! He died but a few years ago, bequeath- 
ing a fortune of millions to his children and grand- 
children, who are at this day classed in the highest 
ranks of society, and are among the bitterest opponents 
of negro slavery ! Some one may be curious to know 
who this Senator was. To mention names would be 
personal. I will just say, that in 1827, Rhode Island 
was represented in the Senate by Neiiemiah R. 
Knight and Asher Robins ! 

Now, too, the little State of Rhode Island has run 
mad upon the subject of slavery, and will promote no 
man to a post of honor who is not the advocate of what 
is falsely called freedom. She spurned Buchanan on 
account of his Democracy, and Fillmore, because of 
his conservative views touching the Southern question, 
and cast her vote for Fremont and Dayton ! 

The pious and religious portion of northern abolition- 



36 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

ists, I take it, are the better portion, and in these the 
people of the South can repose no sort of confidence. 
Take, for example, the case of that great man, and 
powerful pulpit orator, Dr. Olin, who visited Georgia 
more than thirty years ago, as a school-teacher, and 
was kindly treated by Bishop Andrew and others — 
ultimately became a minister — and married an esti- 
mable Georgia lady, owning quite a number of slaves. 
He cashed those negroes at fair prices, pocketed the 
money, and returned to his congenial North ; and when 
Bishop AndrcAV was arraigned before the General Con- 
ference of 1844, in New York, because he had married 
a widow lady owning a half dozen slaves. Dr. Olin 
appeared on the floor of that conference, and both 
spoke and voted against the Bishop ! I might multiply 
instances of this kind, but it is not necessary. I will 
name the cases of two distinguished Presbyterian 
ministers — Dr. Beman, who married in Georgia, and 
Dr. Hall, who was the pastor of a church in Tennes- 
see — who exchanged their negroes for money, returned 
to their congenial North, and became the zealous advo- 
cates of "Freedom," in the abolition sense of the 
term. These gentlemen, like Dr. Olin, washed their 
hands of the sin and scandal of slavery, pocketed the 
money their negroes sold for, and employed their time 
and talents in pleading for the rights of the poor 
Africans of the South ! May I not exclaim, " Lord ! 
what is man?" 

But the gentleman who follows me in this discussion, 
as well as many who hear me to-night, may feel dis- 
posed to complain that I am not adhering to the 
question in controversy — " Ought American /Slavery 



B Y W . G . B R W N L W. 3Y 

to he perpetuated f I purpose to meet that question, 
and to inarch, square up to it — but I have not reached 
the point in this controversy, at which I design to meet 
this issue. Gentlemen will please exercise a little 
patience. 

I am personally acquainted with many of the aboli- 
tionists of the North, connected with the Methodist 
Church ; and although I suppose they are about as 
pious and reliable as abolitionists of other denomina- 
tions, I have but little confidence in their pious sympa- 
thies for Southern negroes. Their clergymen will 
enter their fine churches on the Sabbath, preach and 
pray against the sin of slavery, shed their tears over 
the wrongs of the " servile progeny of Ham" in the 
South; and, on the next day, in a purely business 
transaction, in a dry-goods store, or a candy shop, in 
closing up a book account, they would, cheat a Southern 
slave out of the j^f^^ter that ornaments the head of his 
walking-stick ! But, then, they have this redeeming 
quality, they would do it religiously, and in the sacred 
name of the Lord ! 

What was the course pursued by the pious Metho- 
dists of the North, toward their brethren of the South, 
when the Church divided in 1844 ? The General Con- 
ference agreed upon a "Plan of Separation;" com- 
missioners were subsequently appointed to adjust and 
settle all matters relating to a fair and equitable 
division of the Church property and funds. The 
Southern Conferences met in Louisville, Kentucky, in 
May, 1845, in convention, and resolved themselves 

into a '' SEPARATE AND DISTINCT ECCLESIASTICAL CON- 
NECTION." Instead of abiding by this sacred compact, 
4 



38 A E F I R M A T I V E J I . 

entered into after mucli prayer and deliberation, the 
Northern Church came down upon the Southern 
organization, as a pro-slavery Church, intending only 
to strengthen slavery in the South, and to protect 
slave-holding in the ministry. 

And, sir, with characteristic hypocrisy, and anti- 
slavery dishonesty, the Northern Methodist Church 
repudiated the "Plan of Separation" they had agreed 
upon, and the adjustment in reference to the Church 
property and funds — thus forcing the Southern com- 
missioners to institute legal proceedings against them 
in the United States Courts at Cincinnati and New 
York, where the Church property was located. These 
suits, conducted on the part of the South, by such 
lawyers as Lord, of New York, Reverdy Johnson, 
of Maryland, Stansbury and Corwin, of Ohio, and 
Bryen, of Tennessee, cost the Church, South, over 
SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ; but the South recovered 

about HALF A MILLION ! 

This Church now has a mammoth publishing house 
in successful operation at Nashville ; and dispersed 
throughout her bounds are her seveii Christian Advo- 
cates, weekly organs of the Church, with their 100,000 
subscribers, and from three to five hundred thousand 
readers. She has her "Missionary" organization, now 
contributing as much money for Missionary purposes 
as the entire Church did before the separation in 1844. 
She has her ninety literary institutions — such as 
colleges and high-schools, male and female, under her 
care — more than the entire Church had at the time 
of the separation ! 

What next ? This Church has 24 annual conferen- 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 39 

ces, extending from the Potomac to California, and 
2300 travelling preachers. Beside these, she numbers 
in her ranks 5000 local preachers. Within the bounds 
of these 24 annual conferences, she has a membership 

of SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND, 200,000 of whom 

are colored persons, and slaves at that, with but few 
exceptions ! 

At another time I will speak of the Southern slaves 
in connexion with other Christian denominations. At 
present, I will content myself with the remark, that 
the Methodist Church, South, is dispensing more labor, 
and expending more money, to improve the spiritual 
condition of the slaves ; nay, she is doing more for the 
souls and bodies of the negro race ; than all the Wen- 
dell Phillipses, Josh Giddingses, Horace Greelys, Ward 
Beechers, Loyd Garrisons, Theodore Parkers, Madam 
Stowes, and other freedom-shriekers, now out of the in- 
fernal regions 1 

What next ? A distinguished statesman and pa- 
triot, now no more, delivered a speech in the United 
States Senate, on the 4th of March, 1850, and it was 
his dying speech, for he never spake thereafter. He 
was posted on this slavery question, in all its bearings ; 
and for a quarter of a century, while in the public 
councils of the country, he watched the movements of 
parties with sleepless vigilance. Speaking of the effect 
of the Abolition agitation upon the religious cords 
which assisted in holding the Union together, this 
dying statesman said : 

''The first of these cords which snapped under its explo- 
sive force (Abolitionism) was that of the powerful Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The numerous and strong ties which 
held it together are all broken, and its unity gone." 



40 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

These were among tlie last words of that great and 
towering intellect, and tried patriot, John C. Calhoun, 
who literally died in Southern harness, battling for 
the rights of the South, under the Constitution. A 
man of unblemished private character, a consistent 
member of the Church, and a firm believer in the truths 
of the Bible, I hope, nay I believe he has found a calm 
and welcome retreat from the cares and anxieties of 
political strife, in the paradise of our God, where the 
harsh epithets, and rude insults of unprincipled freedom- 
shriekers, and false-hearted Abolitionists, will never fall 
upon his ear ! for that class of men, after death, never 
travel in the direction of God's habitation ! 

The explosive force of Abolitionism has snapped asun- 
der the cords and strong ties of other Churches, as 
well as that of the "powerful Methodist Episcopal 
Church," which have long been holding this Union 
together. The Southern portion of the New School 
Presbyterian Church, have seperated from their Aboli- 
tion brethren, on account of their ceaseless and grace- 
less agitation of the slavery question, and have orga- 
nized an independent synod ! 

The Baptists split with their Northern brethren upon 
this issue, years ago, and the Southern portion of them 
occupy the only position that Southern Christians can 
occupy, that of independent ground — denying the right 
of any ecclesiastical body to meddle with our domestic 
institutions ! 

The Episcopal Church is moving in the same direc- 
tion, in getting up a great Southern University ; and 
although no formal split has taken place in that Church, 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW, 41 

the reckless Abolitionists within her pale, will sooner 
or later create a schism of the worst sort ! 

As churches, at the South, we cannot affiliate with 
men who fight under the dark and piratical flag of 
Abolitionism, and whose infernal altars smoke with the 
vile incense of Northern fanaticism ! I have no confi- 
dence in either the politician or the divine at the 
North, constantly engaged in the villanous agitation 
of the slavery question. There are true, reliable, con- 
servative, pious, and patriotic men in the North, and 
there are similar men in the South, who came from the 
North, but they are not among these graceless agita- 
tors. And if I find any of these agitators in heaven — 
where I expect to go after death — I shall conclude 
they have entered that world of joy, by practising a 
gross fraud upon the door-keeper ! 

There is much in the political papers of our country, 

and especially at the North, calculated, if not intended, 

to fan a flame of intense warfare upon the subject of 

slavery, betw^een the North and the South, which can 

result in no possible good to either section. Those 

politicians, and bad men, who are exciting the whole 

country, and fanning society into a livid consuming 

flame, particularly at the North, have no sympathies 

for the black man, and care nothing for his comfort. 

They seek their own — not the negro's good. My 

competitor may retort, that I am a leading newspaper 

editor in one of the Southern States, and that I am 

violent upon this subject. I am violent in defence of 

the rights of the South, as I understand them. A 

glance at my history, will acquit me of the charge of 

sectionalism. A native of the "Old Dominion," I 
4* 



42* AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

have resided in Tennessee for the last thirty years, and 
have been that long connected with the politics of the 
country. In 1828, I supported John Quincy Adams 
in opposition to Andrew Jackson. Subsequently I 
supported Clay, Harrison, and Taylor. In opposition 
to Scott and Pierce, I went for Daniel Webster. 
Last, but not least, I supported Fillmore. Thus I 
have supported patriots and statesmen, without any 
regard to their local hahitations. But, this political 
disquietude and commotion, I regret to say, is giving 
birth to new and loftier schemes of agitation and dis- 
union, among the vile Abolitionists of the country, and 
to bold and hazardous enterprises in the States and 
Territories ; and many of our Southern altars smoke 
with the offensive incense of Abolitionism. We have 
scores of these men in the South, in disguise — design- 
ing men : some filling our pulpits — some occupying 
high positions in our colleges — some editing political, 
and some religious papers — some selling goods — some 
retailing pills — some keeping hotels — and some follow- 
ing one calling, and some another, who, though among 
us, are not of us, but are in many instances, our worst 
enemies. 

But the reverend gentleman who follows me, would 
no doubt like to hear what I have to say in answer to 
his question, '' Ought American slavery to he pe7yetii- 
atedf This question I will affirm, when, in the pro- 
gress of this controversy, I reach it. For the present, 
I have only to say, that the institution of slavery was 
established for the benefit of that class of the human 
family who had not the capacity to provide for their 
wants — and of this class are the entire African race — 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 43 

a class that existed in tlie days of Moses — has existed 
ever since — and will continue to exist as lono; as man 
is clothed with the infirmities of mortality. Yes — the 
decree has gone forth, that fully two-thirds of the civi- 
lized race of man shall work for the rest in the capacity 
of hond or hired servants. It is a decree that pervades 
the dominions of civilization, not as the edict of duty, 
but of fallen humanity ; and to meliorate the sufferings 
of the defendant^ by affording them a competency dur- 
ing sickness and aged infirmity, bondage was instituted 
by Moses, under the inspiration of God ! This form 
of slavery, then, is in perfect accordance with the will 
of God. And I shall be able to show that ^' American 
slavery " does not differ mform ov princii^le, from that 
of the chosen people of God. 

I endorse, without reserve, that much-abused senti- 
ment of an eminent Southern statesman, now no more, 
Gov. McDuFFiE, that " slavery is the corner-stone of 
our republican edifice ;" while I repudiate, as ridicu- 
lously absurd, that much lauded, but nowhere accre- 
dited dogma of Thomas Jefferson's, that " all men 
are born equal." God never intended to make the 
negro the equal of the white man, either morally, men- 
tally, or physically. He never intended to make the 
butcher a judge, nor the baker a president, but to pro- 
tect them according to their claims as butcher and 
baker. Pope has beautifully expressed this sentiment, 
in these lines : 

" Order is heaven's first law, and this confess'd, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest/^ 

I have gone among the free negroes of the North — 
I have visited their miserable dwellings in New York, 



44 AFTIRMATIVE, I. 

Providence, Boston, and other large towns. I have 
more than once visited the negro localities of this, the 
^' Quaker City," and twenty-five years ago, I preached 
to them in this city ; and in every instance, I have 
found them more miserable and destitute, as a whole, 
than the slave population of any portion of the South. 
And this must necessarily be the case, while time shall 
last, and the regulations of human society remain as 
they are, and have been. In our Southern States, 
where negroes have been set at liberty, in nine cases 
out of ten, their condition has been made worse ; while 
the most wretched, indolent, immoral, and dishonest 
class of persons to be found in the Southern States, are 
free persons of color. But more of this hereafter, as 
an argument to prove that ^^ American slavery ought to 
he perpetuated !'' 

The freedom of negroes in even your Free States, is, 
in all respects, only an empty name. Your citizen 
negro does not vote, and takes good care not to do so. 
The law does not interdict him this privilege, in some 
of your States, but if he attempt to avail himself of the 
privilege, should he differ in his choice of candidates 
with your white " lords of creation," he is apprehensive 
of apostolic blows and kicks," which pious Abolitionists 
will administer to him ! 

All the social advantages, all the respectable employ- 
ments, all the honors, and even the ^jleasures of life, 
are denied the free negroes of the North, by pious Abo- 
litionists full of sympathy for the down-trodden Afri- 
can ! The negro cannot get into an omnibus, cannot 
enter a bar-room frequented by whites, nor a church, 
nor a theatre ; nor can he enter the cabin of a steam- 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 45 

boat, on one of your Northern rivers or lakes, or enter 
a first-class passenger car on one of your railroads. 
When a negro has dared to do so, in New York, he has 
been unceremoniously thrown out, and has taken his 
case into court, as you very well know : the court has 
held that the conductor served him right ! As a gene- 
ral thing, in New England, negroes are not suffered to 
enter a stage coach with whites, but are forced upon 
deck, whether it shall rain or shine, whether it be hot 
or cold. Industry is closed to them, and they are 
forced to live as servants in hotels, or adopt the pro- 
fession of barber, or boot-black, or open oysters in sa- 
loons, or sell villanous liquors to the lower classes of 
foreign emigrants, who throng our large cities and 
towns. The negroes even have their oivn streets, and 
their own low-down kennels, as is the case here in Phi- 
ladelphia, even ! In nearly all the Northern States, 
they have their own hospitals, their churches, their 
cars, upon which, in many instances, are written in 
large letters, "FOR COLORED PEOPLE." 

Finally, as many of you well know, they are forced 
to have their own grave-yards — the yelloiv remains of 
Northern Abolitionists, and pious white men, refusing 
to mingle with the bleaching bones of the dead negro, 
after death ! Not so in the South : they crowd the 
galleries and back-seats in our churches, travel in our 
passenger-cars and stage-coaches ; and, in our cemete- 
teries, they are frequently buried with the whites, in 
their owners' lots. I know this to be true. 

In ancient Jerusalem, which is nought but a heap 
of mouldering bones and shattered houses, eastern 
travellers tell us, that the promenades are cemeteries, 



46 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

and the very seats are wliited sepulchres, where whole 
generations of Jews have been buried. But — unlike 
our Northern anti-slavery men — there are the bones 
of the Assyrian, the Egyptian negro, the Chaldean, 
the Persian, the Greek, the Syrian, the Roman, the 
Crusader, and the Turk! There they have all met 
together, acting out the principle that "the Lord is 
the Maker of us all." 

During the past year, I have seen the particulars 
of a movement in the Canadian Parliament, looking to 
the removal from that province of all free negroes and 
fugitive slaves, who, as alleged, have proven positive 
nuisances. 

The notorious G-erritt Smith, who, for a quarter of 
a century, has been a rabid Abolitionist, and has be- 
stowed many farms upon free negroes, in his great zeal 
to promote the happiness of the colored race, has be- 
come disgusted with the recipients of his bounty. He 
published in the New York Tribune, that "^/^e colored 
people are generally idle, ivorthless, and vicious,'" and 
that his ^^expectations of their reformation have IN no 
DEGREE BEEN REALIZED." He asserts that half of 
those to whom he "gave farms have sold their lands, 
or have been so worthless as to allow them to be sold 
for taxes." And G-erritt Smith is not the only anti- 
slavery man in the North who has made the discovery 
that white men subsist comfortably and make money, 
vrhile negroes are ignorant and thriftless ! Suffer me 
to edify you with a brief article from the Cincinnati 
Enquirer, for July, 1857, the great political organ of 
Ohio: 



B Y W . G . B R W N L O AV . 47 

'^ There is a remarkable and very suggestive fact in regard 
to the negro emigration into this State. It is this : Of the 
twenty-five thousand free negroes in the State, the vast ma- 
jority reside in counties where there are very few Abolition- 
ists, and which have been chiefly settled by emigrants from 
the Southern States. These negroes appear to have a great 
dread of the Abolition counties; they give them a wide berth. 
Thus, for example, Ashtabula has a negro population of forty- 
three; Geauga, seven; Trumbull, sixty-five. The other coun- 
ties on the lake have a proportionate number of negroes. 
These counties are settled almost exclusively by New Eng- 
land emigrants. On the other hand, Koss county, a Virginia 
settlement, has one thousand nine hundred and six negroes; 
Gallia has one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight; and 
Hamilton county has over four thousand. 

" In these counties the nearo is regarded as inferior, so- 
cially and politically; and the Abolitionist has but a slight 
hold. What is the cause of this striking discrepancy ? Is 
it that the negro feels and knows his inferiority, and natu- 
rally attaches himself to the population which is disposed to 
regard him as an inferior? or is it that the whites in the lake 
shore counties are Abolitionists from an ignorance of the real 
character of the negro ? Certainly there is no better mode 
of curing a neighborhood of Abolitionism than by inflicting 
on them a colony of free negroes. The only way in which 
Giddings can be defeated will be by a few more such philan- 
thropic efibrts as those of Col. Mendenhall, in settling a few 
hundred North Carolina or Kentucky negroes in Ashtabula. 
If our Southern friends will send us their surplus negro 
population, let them provide that they may be located among 
their kind and generous friends in the Western Reserve. 
Such earnest philanthropy as they profess ought not to be 
^wasted on the desert.' ^' 

The New York Times, good anti-slavery authority, 
in publishing the proceedings of a meeting held in 
Kingston, Jamaica, on the 23d of April last, in refer- 
ence to persons of color, sets forth the following facts 
in the two brief extracts I read you : 



48 AFFIRMATIVE, I. 

^^One gentleman wlio visited this country so long ago as 
1840, with a view to procure colored laborers, spoke very 
highly of the character and capacity of the free negroes he 
saw at the South ; but those he met in New York did not 
impress him favorably at all. Neither their habits of indus- 
try nor their morals were such as he desired to see." 

" The island of Jamaica, the largest of the British West 
India possessions, is one hundred and fifty miles long, and 
averages about forty in width. Its area is 4,250 square miles 
— about two-thirds the size of the State of New Jersey. 
The population in 1848 was 380,000, of whom only 16,000 
were whites. The emancipated slaves have, to a great ex- 
tent, wholly refused to work; and, consequently, hundreds 
of estates all over the island have been abandoned. It is to 
remedy this evil that free colored emigration is solicited. 
What the result of the movement may be remains to be 
seen." 

The following paragraph is from the pen of a North- 
ern correspondent of the New York Times, for 1858, 
•writing from New Orleans : 

^' Bad as we of the North believe slavery to be, I have yet 
to see the first sign of the squalid wretchedness, poverty, and 
degradation among the blacks here, which we daily see among 
the blacks and the foreigners of the North. 

'' I have been in several of of the churches built for the 
slaves, and I have seen crowds of them worshipping with 
their masters in the same great congregation. They are 
wonderfully impressible, uttering their feelings in the very 
midst of the services — sometimes by a simple 'yes, yes,' 
sometimes by a long low wail, or a sweet plaintive musical 
sound that goes all over the congregation, and often by a 
shriek from some female voice, followed with a spasmodic 
uplifting of the hands, and then a slight swoon, which draws 
together a crowd of sympathizing negroes, who attend to the 
subject until she is restored to consciousness. All the while 
the services go on as if nothing was the matter, the preacher 
evidently satisfied with this evidence of his power over his 
audience." 



B Y AV. G . B R W N L W. 49 

The Phllaclelpliia North American^ one of tlie ablest 
and most influential journals of this city, and bitterly 
opposed to slavery, has a long article in one of its 
issues for 1858, upon the condition and prospects of 
the free negro population of the Free States. I sub- 
join a few short paragraphs from its article, as they 
fully sustain my charges : 

'^If there is any one fact established by steadily accumu- 
lating evidence it is that the free negro cannot find a conge- 
nial home in the United States. He is an exotic amongst 
us; and all the eflForts of philanthropists to naturaHze him 
on American soil and under American skies, have failed." 

" Ninety-nine in a hundred make a precarious living by 
contentedly performing the most menial offices, or live in 
idleness and wretchedness. — We can liardlij fail to attribute 
this to cJiarartei'istics of their oini. "We see the blacks daily 
driven from avocations once almost exclusively their own. 
It is long since they have flourished in any of the trades, if 
they ever pursued them with success." 

"Whatever explanation may be given of these facts, the 
facts themselves cannot be denied; and what is to be done 
with our colored population, unless they can be induced to 
return as colonists to the native land of their race, or seek 
some other tropical region, bafiles the wisest of us to say.'' 

The North American then refers to the aversion 
which has been exhibited by the North-western States 
to free negroes, and the measures which they have 
taken to exclude this class of population, and says : 

" In a Free State, where emigration is invited by holding 
out every inducement to the inhabitants of the old States 
and to foreigners, this aversion to the presence of colored 
people can only be explained by the opinion that has ob- 
tained, almost universally, that they cannot become useful 
citizens of the United States ; or, in other words, that they 
cannot compete on equal terms with the white race." 

6 



50 AFFIRMATIVE,!. 

Last, but not least, the New York Herald^ for July 
8, 1858, in its notice of the public meeting and free 
negro meeting at Kingston, in Jamaica, says : 

'^ The state of affairs shown to exist, and the admissions 
made by the speakers at this meeting, in relation to the free 
negro communities generally, are of an extraordinary cha- 
racter. Jamaica itself is acknowledged to continue its reces- 
sion towards barbarism ; Liberia is pronounced to be a hum- 
bug, both as a country and as a social community; the free 
negroes of the North are rejected as vicious and worthless, 
and those of the South are pronounced to be the only 
ones fitted to become colonists. In this admission a strong 
Dut indirect compliment is paid to the effect of Southern 
legislation and education upon the negro nature, and it is 
not the less significant that it comes from the colored human- 
itarians themselves/' 

It will not do to meet me with an " Oh ! these are 
only newspaper paragraphs, and the newspapers of the 
country are very unreliable." They give facts, known 
to be such by every intelligent man who hears me. 
Besides, these are the more significant, as they come 
from the acknowledged organs of "the colored human- 
itarians," as the Herald styles them ! 

In a Republican Convention in Minnesota, only one 
year ago, the vote was two to one against the negro ! 
The Convention resolved, by a unanimous vote, "that 
negroes were born free and equal with white men ;" 
and then, by a vote of two to one, refused to admit the 
negroes to that equality, and to the enjoyment of those 
rights they had resolved that they were "born" heir 
to ! And this is but in keeping with Abolition con- 
sistency, wherever they are found. 



BY W. G. BR OWN LOW. 51 

Mj time has expired, and I must close, yielding the 
stand to the gentleman who presents the negative side 
of the question. This, my introductory address, is 
intended to prepare the mind of the gentleman, and 
of the audience, for what is to come ! Thanking you 
for your patient and respectful attention, I will now 
join you in an equally patient hearing of Mr. Pryne. 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 
Negative, I. — By Abram Pryne.* 

Ladies and gentlemen : I enter upon this debate 
profoundly impressed by the magnitude of the subject 
which depends upon my poor powers to-night. No 
greater question, no sublimer cause, can come before 
the human mind than the one we are to investigate 
before you. The civil rights of four million human 
beings depend, in this debate, upon my feeble advocacy. 
Their appeal to the justice, humanity, and Christianity 
of the civilized world for freedom speaks with the 
trembling tones of my poor voice. I am to do my best 
to render vocal their uuAvritten, unspoken wrongs, and 
arouse your souls to do them justice. I am to defend 
a pure religion, and a true philanthropy, against the 
assaults of the most gigantic crime of human history. 
I speak for humanity crushed under iron-shod op- 
pression ; for religion murdered in her own sanctuary ; 
for law trampled under foot in her own temple of 
justice ; for government prostituted by national crime ; 
and in behalf of civilization, progress, order, and 
national development. 

Combined against me is a mighty wrong, hoary with 
age and deeply imbedded in the history of the past. 

•5^ All of my speeches were faithfully reported by Mr. De 
Wolf Brown of Philadelphia. 

(52) 



NEGATIVE^ I. — BY ABRAM PRYNE. 53 

To argue clown American slavery, I must meet 
1200,000,000 of dollars, with logic and ethics ; must 
overturn the precedents of our national administrations, 
the forms of American law, the teachings of our past 
literature, and the sanctions of our religion. And 
when I reflect that with all these, in popular estima- 
tion, against me, I am to meet the reputed Ajax of 
slavery propagandism in this debate, you will agree 
with me that I may well stand appalled. Besides, I 
come to you an unknown man, with no trumpet of fame 
to announce me, no confident national reputation to 
inspire me with courage. I cannot boast of learning 
or eloquence, but am only a plain man, with a heart 
faithful to the cause of freedom, and a will to do some 
service in her behalf. 

On the other hand there are many things which 
gather around this debate to give me courage. My 
cause is itself an inspiration. I speak for voiceless 
maidens sold in the shambles ; for millions of strong 
men rendered mute by chains; for religion, justice, 
law, and an outraged God ; circling out from this hall, 
the vast audience of the civilized world will listen for 
the words of this debate. Thousands of freemen in 
the North will bend their ears and abate their breath to 
learn how their self-elected champion bears himself in 
this controversy. Thousands of oppressors in the South 
will listen for the words of this debate ; and if I fail 
with such a cause to plead, I shall be followed to a 
shameful grave by the deep-voiced execrations of my 
countrymen ; but if I succeed I shall carry to my grave 
the proud consciousness of having struck one good 
blow for God and freedom. Appealing therefore to 
5* 



54 NEGATIVE, I. 

the justice of my cause for aid, and to the great God 
of all peoples for inspiration, I launch forth upon the 
stormy Avaves of this debate. 

I am to maintain, not that American slavery ought to 
be limited, regulated, or restricted, but that it ought to 
relax its ruffian grasp from the throat of every victim 
on this continent and die. With me, in this debate, 
slavery has no rights but one, and that is the right to 
a grave so deep that it shall never have a resurrection. 
I have nothing to do with any schemes for its ameliora- 
tion or restriction ; but, in the name of God and 
humanity I demand its annihilation. 

Shall slavery live ? This question is up — up in 
church and state — up in senate-hall and sabbath-school 
— up at the communion-table and the council-room — 
up in school-house and court-room — up from the golden 
sands of California to the stormy shores of the Bay of 
Fundy — from Cape Sable to the mouth of the 
Columbia River — and, like the ghost of Banquo, it will 
not '' down," though priest and politician bid it " void" 
their presence ; and I am here to meet it and question it. 

"Though hell itself should gape, 
And bid me hold my peace.'' 

My first argument against American Slavery is that 
it began in robbery, piracy, and murder ; and having 
this indescribably wicked beginning, it ought to die. 
It was born of rapacity and cruelty, without the sanc- 
tions of law for its birth, and every step of its exist- 
ence since has been a criminal existence, in defiance of 
the just rights of the hangman and the halter. 

The first Englishman who committed the rape of 



B Y A B R A M P R Y N E . 55 

one continent, and entailed ages of prostitution upon 
another, by opening the African slave trade, was Sir 
John Hawkins, nn adventurous buccaneer in the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth. The English queen gave him a 
license to trade to Africa, and import to America such 
natives as he could persuade (!) to accompany him ; 
expressly enjoining in the license, that he should not 
use force, or fraud, or violence, to induce them to 
accompany him. Now, in the first place, the very 
giving of such a license was a violation of the law of 
civilized nations. Queen Elizabeth had no more right 
to give a license to her subject to trade in Africans, 
than has Queen Victoria a right to license her subjects 
to trade in Tennesseeans. She could have no sove- 
reignty over Africa, and could only license lawful trade, 
subject to treaties with the African kings ; and this 
trade being, in its very nature unlawful and piratical, 
could not be licensed, according to any civilized lavf, 
human or divine. 

But whatever shadow of sanction this license seemed 
to give to the murderous traffic, is dissipated by the 
history of the expeditions of Hawkins. He violated 
the very terms of his license every voyage, and in the 
case of every slave. He did use " force, violence, and 
fraud," contrary to the express prohibitions of his 
license. He desolated the coast with fire and sword ; 
he kidnapped the inhabitants, and loaded them with 
chains, at their own doors ; he burned their dwellings, 
stole men, women, and children, and drove them at 
the point of the pike into the hold of his vessel, and 
thus at every step violated the license under which he 
professed to act. 



56 NEGATIVE; I. 

When the death hour of this inhuman traffic came, 
when Clarkson and Wilherforce, and last of all, Pitt, 
had roused the British nation to its enormity — and 
Wilherforce, of whom Lamartine said, " at his death 
he went up to the Throne of God with a million hroken 
fetters in his hands" — had for the last time moved in 
the British parliament the aholition of this trade, Pitt 
startled its defenders, and electrified the House with 
the following brave words : 

"An}/ contract/^ he said, " for the promotion of this trade 
onusf, in his opinion, have been VOID FROM THE BEGIN- 
NING-, for if it was an outrage upon justice, and only 
another name for fraud, robbery, and murder, what pledge 
could devolve on the legislature to incur the obligation of 
becoming principals in the commission of such enormities, 
by sanctioning their continuance? 

" But he would appeal to the acts themselves. That of 
23 George II. C. 31, was the one upon which the (jrealeM 
stress -was laid. How would the House be surprised to hear 
that these very outrages, committed in the prosecution of 
this trade, had been forbidden by that act ! ' No master of a 
ship trading to Africa,' says the act, ' shall, by fraud, force, 
or violence, or by any indirect practice whatever, take on 
board or carry away from that coast any Negro, or native of 
that country, or commit any violence upon the natives, to 
the prejudice of said trade; and every person so offending 
shall, for every such offence, forfeit one hundred pounds.^ 
But the whole trade had been demonstrated to be a system 
of fraud and violence, aiid therefore the contract was daily 
violated^ under which the Parliament allowed it to continue." 
— Clarkson' s History, p. 314. 

Thus did the great English statesman sweep down 
every vestige of a legal foundation for the Slave Trade, 
and reveal the whole system as naked piracy. This 
trade was the fountain from which slavery proceeded — 
the infernal womb from which the haggard monster 



BYABRAMPRYNE. 57 

was born ; and having sucli a birth, it could have no 
legitimate life in civilized society ; no rights but the 
right to be hunted to its death like the fabled dragons 
of old. 

Here I am happy to stand on common ground in this 
debate, and to start the first proposition of my argu- 
ment against American slavery on ground in which 
my opponent and myself agree. Having had the pre- 
mises of my first argument most fully admitted and 
argued by my opponent, I need offer no further argu- 
ment to prove these premises, but only lead you to the 
legitimate, inevitable conclusion from the premises that 
he himself has furnished me. If the slave trade was 
piracy at its beginning — if it was villanous in its 
inception and its carrying out — then, as it and 
American slavery drew their first breath simultaneously, 
and as American slavery never could have had an 
existence without the slave trade, and has drawn from 
that trade the new blood with which it has covered the 
soil of our own land, I have only to take the premises 
of my opponent to a conclusion which no man can 
dodge — that that which necessarily and legitimately 
grew out of what he joins with John Wesley in 
denouncing as "the sum of all villanies," is itself also 
villanous. Slavery and the slave trade rise or fail 
together. The trade was the grand trunk artery of 
the whole system in its beginning, and will be in the 
continuance of its existence ; and I am astonished that 
a mind so logical as that of my opponent did not strike 
deeper, and defend the trade, as the only premises 
upon which slavery can plant its foot, outside the 
infernal regions. I fully expected him to do this, and 



58 NEGATIVE, I. 

in failing to do it, and in condemning the origin of 
slavery, he has blasted its character forever with the 
dark crime of its birth ; and no forms of legislation, no 
baptisms of religion, no sanctions of time, or lapse of 
ao-es, can render innocent in its after life that which 
committed a foul crime at its very birth. 

The slave trade having been conceded to be illegal, 
and wrong, and villanous, I shall go on to the infer- 
ence. Slavery having had its birth in that trade — 
that trade being its mother — and the man who first 
invented and carried out that trade, committing the 
rape of one continent, and centuries of prostitution 
for another, being held up here before us as a violator 
of all law, human and divine, and as a scourge of his 
race — the children of that trade, and the products of 
that trade, and the results of that trade, all the way 
up to the ripe fruit of plantation discipline, all partake 
of the illegitimate character of the trade itself. Between 
the middle-passage, with all its horror, and the planta- 
tion discipline, there is an iron-linked, logical con- 
nection, that even the Ajax of pro-slavery propagandism 
will in vain attempt to break. 

Right and wrong are not subject to territorial bound- 
aries. Morality has no geographical limits. If the 
slave trade is wrong on the coast of Africa, it is wrong 
in America. It is no greater crime to rob a mother 
of her babe on the Guinea coast, than in the streets of 
Richmond. The domestic slave trade is the same in 
morals, the same before God as the foreign slave trade. 
To rob a father of his daughter, or a mother of her son, 
on the Niger, or the Big Boom, in Africa, is no worse 
than to do this same deed on the Potomac, or Tombig- 



B Y A B R A ?»I P R Y N E . 59 

bee, in America. Trading in human beings is the same 
unmatched crime, whether done bj brutal buccaneers, 
on the African coast, or canting priests and whining 
deacons, from the bosom of a Southern church. Whe- 
ther this crime be prefaced by a prayer or an oath, by 
a psahn or a pirate's song, the crime still stands unri- 
valled in its enormity — and as every day's continuance 
of slavery involves the continuance of the domestic 
trade, with all its horrors, slavery ought to die. Why 
should a sailor be hung for being caught in the slave 
trade, fifty miles at sea, and a priest be applauded and 
petted, while engaged in the same kind of trade on 
land ? Does cant cover crime, or will the mockery of 
hypocritical words blind the eyes of God ? Will pious 
grimace cloak bloody wrong ? Will you drown the 
voice of justice by a psalm, and mob down the cry of 
murdered innocence with drawling prayers ? Ah ! 
God can see through the smoke of hypocritical sacra- 
fice, and hear the cry of the poor along with the din 
of brawling cant ! 

But I go further, gentlemen, than to argue that 
American slavery ought to die because it had its origin 
in a confessedly villanous trade, and in an outrage and 
a wrong upon humanity. I say that, in its historical 
development from that day to this, every progressive 
step in its career has been equally outrageous in the 
eye of the law of nations, the laws of our own land, and 
the laws of God. Its entire life, from its villanous 
birth to this night, has been in defiance of the just 
claims of God's outraged justice. 

And now I am about to take a bold position — one 
that will startle Free Soilers and Hepublicans — one for 



60 NEGATIVE,!. "■ 

whicli I stand here to-night alone responsible. I pro- 
claim the doctrine that, according .to all just notions 
of human law, there never was and never can be a slave 
legally held on the American continent. As my 
opponent tells me that he is a friend of law and order, 
that he is a friend of constitutions and government, 
that he is no enemy of the laws of the land — when I 
shall have proved to you, as I will, that American 
slavery, from beginning to end, is a system of law- 
lessness, then I shall have him on my side, for he is 
pledged to the support of law and order. 

The Slave States of this Union have never established 
slavery by direct and positive legal enactments. No 
statute establishing it can be found. The positive law 
refuses to interfere, and leaves the master to catch the 
slave if he can, while, as we shall see, the common law 
is out against the institution, with its thunders of con- 
demnation, and the lightning of its wrath. We have 
the testimony of southern statesmen themselves, that 
slavery has no enactments on which to stand. John 
C. Calhoun, my opponent's model statesman, says: 

" They were brought here as slaves, sold as slaves, and 
held as slaves, long before any enactment made them slaves. 
J even doubt icJiether there is a single State in the South that 
ever enacted them to he slaves. There are hundreds of acts 
that recognize and regulate them as such, but none, I appre- 
hend, that undertake to create them slaves. Master and 
slave are constantly recognized as preexisting relations." — 
John G. Calhoun, Eej^lf/ to T. II. Benton, 1849. 

" No legislative act of the Colonies can be found in rela- 
tion to it/' (the introduction of Slavery.) — See Wheeler's 
Law of Slaveri/, p. 8-9; Am. Slave Code, p. 268. 

" If the record of any such act exists, we have not been 
able to find any trace of it." — Judge Mattheivs ; Wheeler''' s 
Law of Slavery, p. 15 ; Am, Slave Code^ 267. 



BY ABRA31 PRYNE. 61 

Senator Mason, of Virginia, objected to a jury trial 
for fugitives, on the ground that such a process would 
require 

" Proof to be brought forward that Shivery is established 
by existing laws j" and, said he, " it would be impossible to 
comply with the requisition, for no such law could he pro- 
duced." — GoodeVs Slavery and Anti- Slavery , pp. 570, 571. 

Mr. Bayly, M. C. of Va. agreed with him. 

Senators Douglas and Toombs, in the debate on the 
Nebraska Bill, contended that no statute was necessary 
to establish slavery in Kansas, because no statute had 
established it in any of the States. 

Gen. Stringfellow, of Missouri, used the same argu- 
ment in a letter, in which he said : 

^'The veriest schoolboy must know, as a matter of . history , 
that although slavery existed in all the old States, in not one 
of them icas a law ever enacted to establish it." 

The following gentlemen, namely, Messrs. S. C. 
Brooks and John McQueen, of South Carolina, Wil- 
liam Smith, of Virginia, and Thomas L. Clingman, of 
North Carolina, (members of Congress,) addressed a 
joint-letter to General Stringfellow, strongly com- 
mending his statements. 

The Southern doctrine all through is, that slavery 
is a natural condition — a creature of natural laws — that 
your tenure to your slave is the same as to your horse, 
— because you can catch him ; that you hold him by 
virtue of conquest alone ; that you drive him into your 
field as you drive your ox, — because you have broken 
him and can manage him. The legislature has given 
you no promise to put him in your hands or to make 
6 



62 

him work. The legislature never stands behind him 
driving him up to his work. It has only stood by and 
enabled you to lay your hands upon him and make 
him a slave, never enacting a law giving you the legal 
right to do it, but basely allowing you to catch him if 
you can. So that, gentlemen, American slavery has 
not, for its support, even that shabby notion of law 
that we call legislation. No legislature has yet dared 
to defy Heaven by passing an act to condemn a free- 
man to slavery. 

But even if it had, it would not help the case. For 
let me tell you that everything cannot be framed into 
law. Law has a character of its own. Certain elements 
enter into it ; and whatever enactments lack these ele- 
ments are no laws at all. They are not bad law, but 
they are no law — are null and void, and are oftentimes 
conspiracies against law. An enactment, to have the 
authority and force of law, must be founded in justice 
and reason — must draw its life principles from the 
government of God — must grow out of the nature of 
man — must bear relation to the Divine government 
and come into harmony with it. The mere votes of a 
legislature can no more make a law than they can make 
a God, unless those votes are cast for the development 
and manifestation and revelation of a law that God 
Almighty wove into the structure of the universe at the 
beginning. 

Suppose, gentlemen, (this is an abstract argument, 
but you will see the sweep of it in a moment) — sup- 
pose, if you please, that a company of ten thousand 
natural philosophers should get together and undertake 
to legislate that water should cease to run down-hill 



BYABRAMPRYNE. 63 

and hereafter shall run up-hill ; suppose they should 
solemnly vote that this should be a law of nature — ■ 
that the brooks should turn round, that the streams 
should run up towards their fountain — would the 
streams obey them ? or would they laugh on in their 
course and disreo-ard them? 

o 

Suppose all the mathematicians in the world should 
gather themselves together, and enact, as a law of 
mathematics, that instead of twice two making just four, 
it should make just four and a half — would that niake 
it a law ? would that make it a rule in mathematics ? 
Every boy that could count his fingers would tell you 
when the matter was proposed to him, " Let all the mathe- 
maticians in God's world declare that this is law, I have 
only to count my fingers to prove that it is not true, and 
does not govern the case, and therefore cannot be law." 
Now for the application : God inscribed upon man's fore- 
front the law of self-ownership as clearly and distinctly 
as he revealed the fact that twice two makes four. He 
gave each man two bands and one head : and if all the 
legislatures to be gathered together on earth, should 
legislate that a man should own two dozen hands and 
one dozen heads, the law of God stands forever revealed 
against them ; and instead of such an enactment being 
law, it is a villanous legislative conspiracy against law, 
and deserves no other name. So that, were you able, 
even, to find enactments in favor of the institution of 
American slavery — were you able to find enactments iu 
favor of murder, of robbery, of adultery, of any crime 
that I could name — you would not feel bound to bow 
down to these crimes, because of these enactments, but 
would say that you had come into a land of legislative 



64: NEGATIVE; I. 

criminals, and that what they enacted was not law, but 
multiform crime, stealing the sacred garb of law, under 
which to hide its villany. 

Now, gentlemen, to prove to you that I have not 
been talking mere fanaticism — that the principle 
which I have laid down is the principle sanctioned by 
all legal writers of any note, allow me to quote a few 
authorities : 

'' The law of nature is that which God, at man's creation, 
infused into him, for his preservation, and direction, and this 
is an eternal law, and may not be changed/' — 2 Shep. Ahr.', 
also Jac. Law Diet. 

" Of law no less can be acknowledged, than that her seat 
is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. 
All things in heaven and earth do her homage ; the least as 
feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her 
power." — Hooker. 

" This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and dic- 
tated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to 
any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, 
and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if con- 
trary to this ; and such of them as are valid, derive all their 
force, and all their authority, mediately, or immediately, from 
this original." — Blackstone, Vol. l,p. 41. 

" Jurisprudence is the science of what is just and unjust." 
— Justinian. 

'' The primary and principal objects of the law are rights 
and wrongs." — BJachstone. 

" Justice is the constant and perpetual disposition to render 
to every man his due.'' — Justinian. 

'' The precepts of the law are to live honestly; to hurt no 
one ; to give to every one his due." — Justinian & Blackstone. 

''Law. The rule and bond of men's actions; or it is a 
rule for the well governing of civil society, to give to every 
man that which doth belong to him." — Jacob's Law Dic- 
tionary. 

"All laws derive their force from the law of nature; and 
those which do not, are accounted as no laws." — Fortescue, 
Jac. Law Diet. 



BYABRAMPRYNE. G5 

'^ No law will make a construction to do wrong; and there 
are some things which the law favors, and some it dislikes ; 
it fovoreth those thinii-s that come from the order of nature." 
— 1 Insf. 183, 197. — Jac. Law Diet. 

" Lord Chief Justice Hobart has also advanced, that even 
an act of Parliament made against natural justice, as to make 
a man judge in his own cause, is void in itself, for jura na- 
turcB sunt immutabilia, and they are leges legum^' — (the laws 
of nature are immutable — they are the laws of laws.) — 
Hoh. 87. 

"Those human laws that annex a punishment to murder, 
do not at all increase its moral guilt, or superadd any fresh 
obligation in the forum of conscience to abstain from its per- 
petration. Nay, if any human law should allow or enjoin us 
to commit it, we are bound to transgress that human law, or 
else we must offend both the natural and the divine." — 
Blachstone, Vol. 1, p. 42, 43. 

*^ Those rights then which God and nature have estab- 
lished, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are 
life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more 
effectually invested in every man than they are ; neither do 
they receive any additional strength when declared by the 
municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human 
legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the 
owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a for- 
feiture." — Blachstone, Vol. 1, p. 54. 

''Now we must entirely take leave of our senses, ere we 
can suppose that law and justice have no foundation in na- 
ture, and rely merely on the transient opinions of men." — , 
Same, B. 1, p. 56-57. 

''Whatever is just is always the true law 3 nor can this 
true law either be originated or abrogated by any written en- 
actments." — Same, B. 2, p. 83. 

" It appears in our books, that in many cases, the common 
law will control acts of parliament, and sometimes adjudge 
them to be utterly void ; for when an act of parliament is 
against common right or reason, the common law will control 
it, and adjudge such act to be void." — Coke, in BonJiam's 
case ; 4 Coke's Rep., Part 8, p. 118. 

" If the will of the people, the decrees of the senate, the 
adjudications of magistrates, were sufficient to establish just- 

6* 



66 N E G A T I V E ^ I . 

ice, tlie only question would be liow to gain suffrages, and to 
win over the votes of the majority, in order that corruption 
and spoliation, and the falsification of wills, should become 
lawful. But if the opinions and suffrages of foolish men had 
sufficient weight to outbalance the nature of things, might 
they not determine among them, that what is essentially bad 
and pernicious should henceforth pass for good and benefi- 
cial ? Or why should not a law, able to enforce injustice, 
take the place of equity ? "Would not this same law be able 
to change evil into good, and good into evil?'^ — Cicero. 

I would, were it important, give you multiplied 
quotations upon this point. 

Have I to prove that American slavery is not in 
harmony with the law of nature, but contravenes the 
law of nature ? No ; I shall not stop for such an 
argument to-night. But let us look for a moment to 
see how it stands in the light of statutes. 

In 1772, the Court of King's Bench of Great Britain 
decided that no slave could be held under the English 
Constitution. This was four years before the Declara- 
tion of American Independence. That decision was 
equally of binding force wherever the British Constitu- 
tion bore sway, and applied to the colonies as well as 
to the mother country, for their charters were all 
subordinate to the laws of England. It consequently 
settled the question that, in the American colonies, 
there could no more be legal slavery than in Great 
Britain itself. After the decision of Lord Mansfield, 
in 1772, the next great legal step that swept slavery 
from the country, was the Declaration of American 
Independence. 

Gentlemen, when the old bell that now stands, 
cracked, in Independence Hall — an object of reverence 



B Y A B R A M P R Y N E . 67 

to every American patriot — rang out upon the startled 
air her first peal after the Declaration of American 
Independence, the language to the nation was that in- 
scribed upon her own form, " Proclaim liberty through- 
out all the land to all the inhabitants thereof." And 
that sentiment was put in other language into the 
Declaration itself; when it declared all men — not all 
white men — not all men of a certain color, but all men 
— to be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. That Declaration, I take it, is the basis, 
the corner-stone of all American law — the constitution 
of the American Constitution — and lies at the founda- 
tion of everything that comes after in the form of an 
organized and legislating government ; and that De- 
claration swept away every legal vestige of American 
slavery from the whole breadth of the land. 

I shall be answered, perhaps, that slavery continued 
to exist after that — that it still exists. It does. In 
the State of l^ew York we had a few months ago a 
" Maine liquor law," making illegal the sale of in- 
toxicating drinks anywhere in the State. Yet the sale 
went on. But did that fact make the sale legal ? or 
did it only show that there was a power sustaining the 
sale that could override the law? So, when the De- 
claration of American Independence swept away every 
legal foundation for slavery, the fact of its continued 
existence no more proves its legality than the fact of a 
continued sale of intoxicating drinks in spite of a 
"Maine Law," proves the legality of such sale. 
Because all thieves are not caught and punished, is 
theft therefore lawful ? 

So far as this argument is concerned, then, I shall 



68 NEGATIVE,!. 

— as my opponent has declared himself a friend of law 
and order and government, and in favor of sustaining 
the law— -call upon him to come up with me to the 
support of the Declaration of American Independence 

— the basis of American law ; I shall ask his aid in the 
effort to carry it out strictly in the country and proclaim, 
in the language of the old bell, " liberty throughout all 
the land and to all the inhabitants thereof." 

But another step is necessary in this argument 
against the legal existence of slavery. I take my 
friend on his own premises. He is in favor of the law 
and the Constitution ; so am I, and I shall spend a few 
moments in proving to him that the Constitution of the 
United States itself is a document all instinct with 
Abolitionism from beginning to end, and that in harmony 
with that Constitution and in the carrying out of its 
principles, every slave in this nation should be set free. 
And when I shall have proved this, I shall be sure to 
have him on my side ; for he is in favor of the law and 
in favor of the Constitution. 

I will only start this argument to-night by quoting 
the preamble of the Constitution of the United States 
— its own declaration of its intention and its purposes. 
The preamble of any law is the declaration of its inten- 
tion, as made by the legislators themselves — its breadth 
and scope, and width and design, as mapped out in the 
minds of those who frame it. And I take it that the 
preamble of the Constitution of the United States is to 
be regarded by lawyers, as well as by all men of com- 
mon sense, as the statement made by the adopters of 
that Constitution, of what they intended to do with it 
and by it. On this point I quote authorities : 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 69 

Chief-Justice Jay regards the Preamhh of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States an authoritative guide to a correct 
interpretation of that instrument. — 2 Dallas, 419. 

Story says, " The importance of examining the preamble, 
for the purpose of expounding the language of a statute, 
has been long felt, and universally conceded in all juridical 
discussions. It is an admitted maxim in the ordinary course 
of the administration of justice, that the preamble of a sta- 
tute is a key to open the mind of the makers, as to the mis- 
chiefs which are to be remedied, and the objects which are 
to be accomplished by the provisions of the statute. We 
j&nd it laid down in some of our earliest authorities in the 
common law, and civilians are accustomed to a similar ex- 
pression, cessante Jegis prcEmiOy cessat et ipsa lex. (The pre- 
amble of the law ceasing, the law itself also ceases.) Pro- 
bably it has a foundation in the exposition of every code of 
written law, from the universal principle of interpretation, 
that the will and intention of the le2;islature is to be reoarded 
and followed. It is properly resorted to where doubts or 
ambiguities arise upon the words of the enacting part; for if 
they are clear and unambiguous, there seems little room for 
interpretation, except in cases leading to an absurdity, or to 
a direct overthrow of the intention expressed in the preamble. 

''There does not seem any reason why, in a fundamental 
law or constitution of government, an equal attention should 
not be given to the intention of the fiamers, as expressed in 
the preamble. And accordingly we find that it has been 
constantly referred to by statesmen and jurists to aid them 
in the exposition of its provisions." — 1 Stort/'s Comm. on 
Const., pp. 443-4. 

That preamble reads thus : 

" "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defence, promote the gene- 
ral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States of America." 

Now I shall assume that the framers of the Consti- 



70 NEGATIVE. I. 

tution did not lie — that, wlien they stated that their 
object was to form a more perfect union, to establish 
justice, to promote the general welfare, to secure the 
blessings of liberty, they told the truth. If this be the 
fact, then, that preamble is to be regarded as a decla- 
ration that the Constitution is against slavery. 

One of their objects was *'to form a more perfect 
union." What endangers the Union? What has dis- 
turbed the Union ? What has rocked and heaved the 
Union from Cape Sable to the mouth of the Columbia 
River, and from the stormy shores of the Bay of Fundy 
to the golden sands of California ? What but the in- 
troduction and determined perpetuation among us of 
the gigantic wrong of American slavery ? I ask, shall 
this Union be made more perfect until it shall cease to 
stand rocking and heaving, as it does, on the bosom of 
the poor slave ? A Union that is held together by 
planting the iron heel of the National administration 
on the bosom of four million innocent men — who ex- 
pects such a Union to be tranquil ? Who expects it to 
rest a moment ? God, breathing into the heart of hu- 
manity the nobler and higher impulses of our common 
nature, demands of every man living under such a 
Union that he shall rock it from centre to circumfe- 
rence until it shall cease to rest upon the bosom of four 
million crushed slaves. The humanity of the age is 
sure to secure the freedom of these slaves, either 
throuo-h the union of these States or over the union of 
these States. Though I am a friend to the Union — 
though I would not have the South leave the Union, 
but would grapple her to it as with hooks of steel, un- 
til she shall be obliged to let her bondmen go free and 



BYABRAMPRYNE. 71 

to do justice to the slave — nevertheless, I cannot fail 
to see, as does every man, that the disturbing force 
^vhich prevents a perfect union of these States is the 
institution of slavery. Abolish it, and your Union 
will be perfect. 

Another object stated in the preamble is, '^ to estab- 
lish justice." Justice is it, that in God's bright ^Yorld, 
in the noon of the nineteenth century, one man should 
take the child of another from the cradle and reduce 
him to life-long slavery ? Justice is it, that one man 
should take the sister of another, and hold her upon 
the auction block, and auctioneer off her beauty? 
Justice is it, that one man should drive a hundred of 
his fellows into the cotton-jadd, in order that he him- 
self may be enriched out of their unpaid toil ? If that 
is justice, then, in the name of humanity, let wild an- 
archy commence its reign, and let us have something 
else than that form of justice. Oh, gentlemen, when 
the objects declared in the preamble of the Constitution 
of the United States shall be carried out, and when 
justice shall be established in this nation, there will go 
up a glad shout to Heaven from millions of slaves, re- 
joicing that the day of freedom has at last dawned 
for them. 

Another object stated in that preamble is to " ensure 
domestic tranquillity." Why is the South untranquil 
now ? Why dare she not let every man in this land go 
forth, speaking his free thoughts, over her hills and 
valleys? Why would she, if she were able, inflict 
upon me, for the utterance of these thoughts that 1 
have spoken, the direst punishment that the wrath of 
her citizens could invent. Simply because she has an 



M 



72 NEGATIVE, I. 

element in her society that renders freedom and do- 
mestic tranquillity impossible together ; and she can 
only secure what to her appears to be quiet, (but which 
is, in fact, but sleeping over a volcano) by suppressing 
freedom of speech, by crushing out freedom of debate, 
by driving her John C. Underwoods from Ya., and 
casting out the book of Frederick Douglass from Ala- 
bama, and driving from her borders every man of a 
free and faithful utterance ; and so long as this element 
of slavery continues, her masters will .continue to sleep 
with pistols under their bolsters, and as they go out in 
the night time or the day, the ghost of their own horrid 
system will conjure up among them fears and phanta- 
sies, and dread of insurrection, thick as the men of 
Roderick Dhu, in the brake, and the day will never 
come when they will have domestic tranquillity in the 
South, until slavery b^ abolished. 

Having, in proceeding thus far with my argument, 
carried with me the law and the Constitution, I shall 
ask my opponent to-morrow night, he being a law-abi- 
ding and Constitution-loving man, to make a speech on 
my side of the question. 

But I will not this evening go further in this argu- 
ment, founded on the American Constitution, but turn- 
ing from that point, I will give my attention for a few 
moments to the speech of my opponent. My reference 
to it shall be brief, for my friend tells me that he has 
not yet reached the main issue — and I was aware of 
it without his telling me. He being on the aflSrmative, 
I shall defer beginning anything like a serious reply to 
his speeches until he digs his way up within, at least 



BYABRAMTRYNE. 73 

some reasonable proximity of the question that we have 
come here to debate. 

Mj friend has urged as authority in support of sla- 
very — the Bible. When he shall bring forward his 
proof, then, if I am not able to meet it, and meet it 
successfully, I will give up my opposition to the insti- 
tution of slavery. But I am not to be drawn into the 
ingeniously set trap of making a negative argument 
against a position which he simply declares, and does 
not deign to argue. Let him give us his argument, and 
then, if I do not meet it, you may say that I am unable 
to do so. He tells us that slavery has always existed. 
Sad as it may be to confess it, I have not the slightest 
disposition to deny it. So, since the day when Cain 
and Abel met unfortunately by the altar of God, and 
Cain raised his club and slew his brother, murder has 
always existed. But does that make it right ? 

Because a hoary wrong has, with stern and iron 
tread, walked down the line of centuries, crushing mil- 
lions under its ponderous heel, does length of time 
baptize it with sacredness, make it innocent, and give 
it sanctity ? or does it add by every revolving century 
and each rolling year and each diurnal revolution of 
the earth, the deeper damnation of a deeper condemna- 
tion to every age and hour of its outrageous existence ! 

Slavery is defended by the length of time which it 
has existed. Ay ! and that length of time has projected 
the groan of humanity in one long wail down the stream 
of centuries, and it has gone up to God evermore cry- 
ing for vengeance upon oppressors and the outragers 
of the poor ; and though men may, by time, have be- 
come familiar with the crime, in Heaven's eye, it has 
7 



74 NEGATIVE, I. 

not bated a jot nor tittle of its frightful mien since its 
introduction on the face of the earth. 

My friend refers to Abraham as a slaveholder. 
AYhen he tries to prove it I Avill meet his argument. 
He tells you that Babylon and Egypt were built by 
slaves. Yes ! and when God Almighty, with the out- 
stretched arm of his vengeance, thundered on Babylon 
in her iniquity, one of the reasons that the prophet 
gives why it was done, was that she dealt in " slaves and 
the souls of men." And Egypt now lies buried under 
the ruins of the same greatness which she builded by 
oppression, and the retributive waves of ages of ven- 
geance have nearly buried her gigantic works of art built 
by slaves. God manifested his wrath for her slavery, 
when he once threw her king and his slave-catching hosts 
in the waves of the Red Sea, where " the horse and his 
rider" perished together! 

My opponent tells us that slaves w^ere held and are 
still held in Africa. The poor African, he tells us, 
after two hundred years of amelioration and cultiva- 
tion under Southern piety, and plantation godliness, is 
not yet fit for freedom. Yet he refers us to the 
African in his darkness and heathenism centuries back 
as a model for us : we are to hold slaves because 
he did ! 

I pass over many of the points which I have noted, 
bearing on this Bible argument, because I shall pursue 
this subject further to-morrow evening. 

The last half nearly of my friend's speech was taken 
up with abusing — no, I will not use that word — with 
saying hard things of Northern men and Northern 
society. It is unfortunate that in some of these hard 



BYABRAMPRYNE. 75 

tilings I shall be compelled to partly join with him. 
Of the scorn and indignation which he projects at 
New England slave-holders and slave-owners, and New 
York slave-holders and slave-traders, I take, so far as 
I am concerned for those States, my full share. But 
if New England was hypocritical in buying slaves and 
working slaves — if New York is to be hooted at and 
scorned for having been a slave-dealing and a slave- 
holding State a hundred years ago — what Is to be 
said of Tennessee, that continues the practice in the 
noon of the nineteenth century. If New England and 
New York were hypocritical in stealing men from 
Africa to make them slaves, and selling them at the 
South, what has become of the old adage, that the 
''partaker Is as bad as the thief." The man who buys 
stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, lacking the 
enterprise and the courage to steal them himself, gets 
them into his hands in a lazier, but not a nobler way. 

If Northern men have bowed in base and toadying 
subserviency to the spirit of vlllanous politics, the 
reason is to be found in the fact that the national 
capitol is on slave-holding territory ; and the vilest 
slave-holding spirit, demoralizing as it does whatever 
it touches, has oftentimes overborne the bulwarks of 
Northern virtue. I shall charge the delinquencies of 
Northern men upon the seductions of American slavery 
as presented by the South ; so, 

"Lay on, Macduff, 
And—" 

I will not complete the sentence. 

By every argument which proves that Northern men 
have bowed in cringing subserviency to American 



76 NEGATIVE, I. — BY ABRAM PRYNE. 

slavery, you prove that slavery is the spirit of ruffian 
tyranny, and holds such sway with its instrumentalities, 
as to destroy the virtue of such Northern men as come 
under its power. If Northern men have ever been 
sneaks, slavery has made them so. If Northern men 
have shown themselves lacking in virtue when they got 
to Congress, it was after they had been subjected to 
the corrupt influences with which they are surrounded 
by the South. 

My friend tells us — of course it is of no account 
to the argument — that some Northern Abolitionists 
are so mean that they would steal the pewter ornament 
off the cane-head of the negro. Let me retort that 
the law of the South is so tyrannical that it permits 
the slave-holder to steal the negro, cane, and all 

Ladies and gentlemen ! I thank you that you have 
given me, an unknown stranger, a patient hearing and 
a cordial reception ; and I hope by to-morrow night my 
opponent will reach the heart of this question, and 
lead the way, so that the discussion may be made 
worthy of the audience, and worthy of the ponderous 
gravity of the subject under debate. 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 
Affirmative, II. — By W. G. Brownlow 

Eespected Auditors ! It is usual, if it is not even 
an established rule in all scholastic discussions, that 
the respondent shall confine himself to the arguments 
of the affirmant, on whom the onus prohandi rests. 
However, I am willing to overlook the aherratioyis 
observable in the truly desultory remarks of my worthy 
friend on yesterday evening, and for two good and 
sufficient reasons. First, in our correspondence, we 
agreed upon the largest liberty, in the way of a margin ; 
and next, introductory speeches are usually more 
general than sj^ecial in their character. I may be 
allowed to add, that not having been demolished by 
the rejoinder, I have no cause to repine. This I 
venture to say, without assuming the office of umpire 
in this debate. I hope the gentleman has recovered 
his composure after the discussion of yesterday even- 
ing. And if the joints of his armor crack under the 
power of the truth to-night, it shall not be my fault; 
nor his : but the fault of the cause he advocates. 

In my remarks to-night I aim to consult the Holy 
Scriptures, to see whether or not they sustain or con- 
demn the institution of slavery. The opposers of 
slavery profess to be governed alone by the teachino-s 
of the Bible, in their war upon the institution. My 
7* (77) 



78 AFFIRMATIVE; II. 

friend and competitor, being a Protestant minister, 
will endorse what the Bible teaches: we may differ 
when we come to interpret its teachings, and doubtless 
will, upon this grave subject ! 

It is vain to look to Christ or any of his Apostles 
to justify the blasphemous perversions of the word of 
God, continually paraded before the world by those 
graceless agitators known as Abolitionists. Although 
slavery in its most revolting forms was everywhere 
visible around them, no visionary notions of piety, or 
mad schemes of philanthropy, ever tempted either 
Christ or one of his Apostles to gainsay the law, even 
to mitigate the cruel severity of the slavery system 
then existing. On the contrary, finding slavery esta- 
hlished by law, as well as an inevitable and necessary 
consequence, growing out of the condition of human 
society, their efforts were to sustain the institution. 
Hence St. Paul actually apprehended a '■''fugitive 
slave,'' and sent him home to his lawful owner, and 
earthly master ! 

I shall first appeal to the authority of the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures, before I appeal to the irresistible 
authority of the New Testament, where we learn that 
slavery existed in the earliest days of the Christian 
Church, and that both masters and slaves were members 
of the same Christian congregations. Slavery was an 
institution of the State, in the Roman empire, just as 
it is in the Southern States of this Confederacy ; and 
the inspired Apostles, and first teachers of Christianity 
did not f.'cl at liberty to denounce it, if, indeed, they 
felt the least opposition to it — a thing I utterly deny. 

Listen to me while I read you some truly sensible 
passages from the Bible : 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 79 

"And he said, I am Abraham's servant." — Gen. xxiv : 34. 

^'And there was of the house of Saul a servant, whose 
name was Ziba ] and when they had called him unto David, 
the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba ? And he said, Tliy 
servant is 7ie." — 2 Sam. ix : 2. 

"Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said 
unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that per- 
tained to Saul, and to all his house/' — Verse 9th. 

" Thou, therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till 
the land for him, and thou shall bring in the fruits, that thy 
master's son may have food to eat, &c. Now Ziba has fifteen 
sons and twenty servants." — Verse 10th. 

" I got my servants and maidens, and had servants horn in 
my house; also, I had great possessions of great and small 
cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me." — Eccles. 
ii : 7. 

''And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? 
And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai." — 
Gen. xvi : 8. 

'' And the Angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy 
mistress, and submit thyself to her hands," — Verse 9th, 

I have but few comments to offer upon these passages 
from Holy Writ ; still, I wish to impress upon your 
minds one or two points which you may overlook. 
First, then, one individual acknowledges himself to be 
the owner of 20 slaves ! Another was raising slaves — 
acknowledges that he was a regular Blave breeder — was 
having them born in his house, no doubt intending them 
for the best market he could find — and' all this, mark 
you, w^as under the sanction of the Almighty ! And 
last, but not least, the Angel of God arrested a fugitive 
slave and forced her to return to her law^ful owner. 
High authority this, for apprehending runaway negroes ! 
And when I tell you, as I now" do, in all candor, that 
the Angel of God, on this occasion, was acting in the 
capacity of a United States Marshal, under the then 



80 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

existing fugitive slave laws of the Old Testament, and 
arresting a fugitive slave, the anti-slavery portion of 
Ton, either think me crazy, or guilty of a profanation 
of sacred things ! 

In reference to had servants, we read in Prov. 
xxix : 19 — 

'' A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he 
understand, he will not answer." 

Here we are taught that a servant will not be corrected 
by words, and the inference is, that stripes must be 
inflicted. The Scriptures look to the correction of 
servants, and really enjoin it, as they do in the case of 
children. I esteem it the duty of Christian masters to 
feed and clothe their negroes well — to work them well, 
that is, constantly, but in moderation — and in cases of 
disobedience, to luhip ivell. And upon this principle 
we proceed in the South ! I may be inquired of to say 
whether I approve the cruelty exercised by masters 
and overseers in the South, and the starvation and 
nakedness displayed there — and whether or not the 
Scriptures tolerate this ! I have to say in reply, that 
this cruelty, starvation, and nakedness, does not exist 
in the South, but in the disordered imaginations of 
Abolition preachers, travellers, and slanderers, who 
pass hurriedly through the South, getting up materials 
for book-making. 

Born and raised in the South, I have lived there a 
half a century — I have travelled through all the 
Southern States but Florida and Texas, and to this 
good day I have never seen a negro whipped, hanged, 
or burned at the stake. I have seen negro children 



BYW.G.BROWNLOW. 81 

whipped, for disobedience, just as I have seen the white 
children corrected on the same premises ! I have seen 
many negroes who deserved basting for their disobedi- 
ence and bad conduct. Madam Stowe, in one brief 
tour through the South, was annoyed with the appalling 
vocabulary of "cruel overseer," "unfeeling driver," 
"clanking chains," &c., but I, who have travelled 
through these States for thirty years, visiting cotton 
and sugar plantations, have never met with any thin o- 
of the kind ! 

In the book of Joel iii : 8, the slave, trade is even 
recognized as of Divine authority : 

"And I will sell jour sons and your daughters into the 
land of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to 
the Sabeans, to the people far off; FOR THE LORD HATH 
SPOKEN IT !" 

Dk. Clarke informs us in his comments on this 
passage, that as many as thirty thousand of these 
people were sold into bondage — first to the children of 
Judah, and then to the Sabeans, or Arabs, a people 
far off ! The geography of the country shows that they 
removed them about as far from their kindred and 
friends, as we do our negroes when we drive them from 
Virginia and the Qarolinas, to Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana ! 

But I now appeal to the irresistible authority of the 
New Testament : 

" Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was 
called. Art thou called, being a servant? Care not for it; 
but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that 
is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman; 



82 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

likewise also lie that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." 
1 Cor. vii : 20-22. 

" Servants, be obedient them that are your mastei's accord- 
ing to the Jiesli, with fear and trembling, in singleness of 
your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye-service, as men- 
pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of Grod 
from the heart. With good-will doing service, as to the 
Lord, and not to men : knowing that whatsoever good thing 
any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether 
he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things 
unto them, forbearing threatening : knowing that your Master 
also is in heaven : neither is there respect of persons with 
him."— Ej>h. vi : 5-9. 

" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to 
the flesh : not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in sin- 
gleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it 
heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men : knowing that of 
the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for 
ye serve the Lord Christ.'' — Col. iii : 22-25. 

^^ Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal : knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." — Col. 
iv: 1. 

''Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their 
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and 
his doctrines be not blasphemed. And they that have be- 
lieving masters, let them not despise them, because they are 
brethren ; but rather to do them service, because they are 
faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things 
teach and exhort." — 1 Tim. vi : 1, 2. 

"Exhort servants to be obedient unto their owri masters, 
and to please them well in all things ; not answering again ; 
nor purloining, but showing all good fidelity ; that they may 
adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour and all things." — 
Titus ii : 9, 10. 

" Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For 
this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God 
endure grief, suffering wrongfully." — 1 Peter ii : 18, 19. 

I have but a few "words of comment to offer upon 
these passages of Scripture. The original words used 



B Y W. G . E R "SV N L W. 83 

by the Greek, both sacred and profane, to express 
slave — the most abject condition of slavery — to express 
the absolute oivner of a slave, and the absolute control 
of a slave — are the strons-est that the lanf!;iia<2;e aflbrds, 
and are used in the passages I have quoted. If the 
inspired Apostles understood — if they knew what they 
were talking about, and desired to convey these ideas, 
and to recognize the relations of master and slave ^ they 
would naturally enough employ the very words they 
used. To say that they did not know the . primary 
meaning and usus loquendi of the original words, is 
paying them a compliment I have no w^ish to partici- 
pate in ! 

There is one other strong point I wish to make in 
this controversy. Christ says of a Roman Centurion, 
upon his confession to him that he held slaves, "• I have 
not seen so great faith^ no, not in Israel.'' The Cen- 
turion, mark it, was a Roman Centurion, not a Jew, 
and held slaves under the Roman law, that admitted of 
enormities and excesses before which the worst features 
of '''American Slavery'' appear but as tender mercies, 
when compared with their diabolical cruelties. Still 
Christ, by this act, although he condemned injustice 
and cruelty, acknowledged and established the fact 
that a man could be a Christian and yet hold slaves, 
even under the tenor of the law^ that admitted of so great 
enormities. Should not, therefore, every unbiassed 
mind come to the conclusion, that anti-slavery men of 
the North, who are no better than Christ and his Apos- 
tles, ought not to attempt to exclude Christian Tennessee, 
Georgia, Alabama, &c., from the kingdoms of grace 
and glory, who live under, and hold slaves under a far 



84 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

more Imman and Christian law, governing the institu- 
tion of slavery ! 

But, to show that I am not singular in my views of 
the meaning expressed in the passages quoted — show- 
ing that they express in one case slaves, and in the 
other masters or owners, actually holding them as 
property, under the sanction of the laws of the State, 
I quote from the following distinguished authorities. 

That great commentator, Dr. Adam Claeke, on 
1 Cor. vii. 21, says : 

'^Art tliou converted to Christ while thou art a slave — 
the property of another person, and bought with his money? 
Caix not for it.'' 

The learned Dr. Neander, in his work entitled 
" Planting and Training the Church," in referring to 
Onesimus, mentioned in the Epistle to Philemon, says 
of him : 

'^It does not appear to be at all surprising that a runaiDay 
slave should betake himself at once to Rome.'^ 

The gentleman who follows me in this debate, knows 
very well that to the foregoing I might add any num- 
ber of authorities, of equal weight and importance. 

Historians all agree that slavery existed, and was 
general throughout the Roman empire, at the time the 
Apostolic Churches were instituted. I have at my 
command the authorities to prove this ; but no well- 
informed gentleman will expose himself by calling the 
fact in question. I will cite the authorities only; and 
Abolitionists denying my position can examine for 
themselves. See Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire," vol. i. See ''Inquiry into Roman 



BY W . G . B 11 AV N L W . 85 

Slavery," by "Wm. Blair, Edinburg edition of 1833. 
See vol. iv. of "Lardner's Works," p. 213. See vol. 
i. of "Dr. Robertson's Works," London edition. 

These authorities, if consulted, show that slavery 
"was a civil institution of the State ; that the Roman 
laws held slaves as property^ at the disposal of their 
masters ; that the slaves, whether white or black, had 
no civil rights or existence, and contended for none ; 
and that there were, throughout the empire, tlvee 
slaves to one citizen — showing an exact similarity be- 
tween the Roman empire and the tobacco, cotton, and 
sugar-growing States of this Confederacy! Gibbon 
says that "slavery existed in every province and every 
family," and that they were bought and sold accord- 
ing to their capacities for usefulness, and the demand 
for labor — selling for hundreds of dollars, and from 
that down to the price of a beast of burden ! 

Now, it is notorious that the Gospel made consider- 
able progress among the citizens of the Roman em- 
pire ; and, as every family owned slaves, it follows 
that slaveholders were converted to God, and admitted 
into the Church. It will not do to allege, as some 
anti-slavery men do, that the p)oor, including the 
slaves, were alone converted to God, because the apos- 
tles make frequent allusions to the receiving into the 
Church of intelligent, learned, professional, and opu- 
lent persons. The learned Dr. Mosheim, in his 
"Church History," vol. i., relating to the fast three 
centuries, settles this question. He says : 

^^The apostles, in their writings, prescribe rules for the 
conduct of the rich as well as the poor, for masters as well 

8 



86 A F F I R :»I A T I V E, II. 

as servants — a convincing proof thai among tlie members of 
the Church pUmted by them were to be found persons of 
opulence and masters of families. St. Paul and St._ Peter 
admonished Christian women not to study the adorning of 
themselves with pearls, with gold and silver, or costly array. 
1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Peter iii. 3. It is, therefore, plain that there 
must have been women possessed of wealth adequate to the 
purchase of bodily ornaments of great price. From 1 Tim. 
vi. 20, and Col. ii. 8, it is manifest that, among the first 
converts to Christianity, there were men of learning and 
philosophers; for, if the wise and the learned had unani- 
mously rejected the Christian religion, what occasion could 
there have been for this caution ? 1 Cor. i. 26 unquestion- 
ably carries with it the plainest intimation that persons of 
rank or power were not wholly wanting in that assembly. 
Indeed, lists of the names of the various illustrious persons 
who embraced Christianity, in its weak and inflmtile state, 
are given by Blondel, p. 235 De Episcopis et Presbyteris; 
also by Wetstein, in his Preface to Origen's Dia. Con. Mar., 
p. 18.'' 

This is an important argument ; for it is safe to go 
to Christ and his inspired apostles to learn the truth 
in reference to slavery. In concluding what I term 
my scriptural argument in favor of the institution of 
slavery, I desire to present for the consideration of 
the gentleman who replies to me, Five Points, which I 
hold to be legitimate deductions from what has gone 
before. His Church relations have acquainted him 
with the "Five Points of Calvinism," and his local 
habitation in the Empire State has made him familiar 
with the " Five Points in New York," where the degra- 
dation of free white and colored persons falls far below 
the degradation of the slaves in any portion of the 
South. But I will present him with Five Points, in 
the close of this scriptural argument, which he may 
characterize the Five Points of the South. 



B Y W . O . B R W N L W . 87 

First Point. — There is not a single passnge in tlio 
New Testament, nor a single act in the records of tlie 
Church, during her early history, for even centuries, 
containing any direct, professed, or intended denun- 
ciation of slavery. The apostles found the institution 
existing, under the authority and sanction of lavr; 
and, in their labors among the people, masters arid 
slaves bowed at the same altar, communed at the same 
table, and were taken into the same church together 
— the apostles exhorting the one to treat the other as 
became the Gospel, and the other to obedience and 
honesty, that their religious profession might not be 
evil spoken of! 

Secondly. — The early Church of Christ, not only 
admitted the existence of slavery, but in various ways, 
by her teachings and discipline, expressed her appro- 
bation of it, enforcing the observance of certain ^^Fu- 
gitive Slave Laivs,'' which had been enacted by the 
State. And in the various acts of the Church, from 
the times of the Apostles downward, through several 
centuries, she enacted laws and adopted regulations, 
touching the duties of masters and slaves, as such. 
This, apart from all other considerations, amounts to 
a justification and defence of the institution of slavery. 

Thirdly. — My investigations of the subject have 
led me to where similar investigations must lead all 
candid and unprejudiced men — namely, to the conclu- 
sion that God intended the relation of master and slave 
to exist, both in and out of his Church. Hence, when 
God opened the way for the organization of the Church, 
the Apostles and first teachers of Christianity found 
slavery incorporated with every department of society ; 



88 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

and, in the adoption of rules for the government of the 
members of the church, they provided for the riglds 
of owners, and the wants of slaves. 

Fourtlihj. — Slavery, in the days of the Apostles, 
had so penetrated society, and was so intimately inter- 
woven with it, that a reWgion preaching freedom to the 
slave, w^ould have arrayed against it the civil authori- 
ties, armed against itself the whole power of the State, 
and destroyed the usefulness of its preachers. St. 
Paul knew this, and did not assail the institution of 
slavery, but labored to get both masters and slaves to 
heaven, as all ministers should do. That St. Paul was 
himsel? favorable to slave-holding, is manifest from the 
fact, that in the case of the runaivay slave he appre- 
hended, he modestly asked the wealthy owner for the 
slave, for his own domestic purposes ! 

Fifthly. — Slavery having existed ever since the 
first organization of the Church, the Scriptures clearly 
teach that it will exist to the end of time. Rev. vi. 
12-17 points to " The Day of Judgment," ''The Last 
Day," " The Great Day," and the condition of the hu- 
man race at that time, as well as the classes of persons 
to be judged, rewarded, and punished ! A portion of 
this text reads : 

'' And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the 
rich men, and the mighty men, and every londman, and 
eyery freeman ," etc. 

will be there ; clearly implying that slavery will exist, 
and that the relations of master and slave will be re- 
cognized, to the end of time ! 

These sacred truths stand in the face of all our 



r> Y W . C . B R W N L w . 80 

Abollticn priests, to tcacb tlicm tlic two following 
moral lessons : 

First. — That all the liner feelings of humanity 
were cherished in the bosoms of slave-owners — and 
that devout slave-owners received no rebuke from the 
lips of the Redeemer for holding their slaves in bond- 
age ; yet, according to Abolition Christianity, they were 
guilty of '"''the accursed sin of slavery.'' 

Second. — That the bonds of the slave may provoke 
the wrath of the Abolitionist, but not of the Redeemer 
— who smiles alike on the devout master and the pious 
slave, having prepared for each a place in Heaven ! 

Abraham, called the father of the faithful, and the 
friend of God and man, was a large slave-holder, and, 
upon his death bed, bequeathed his slaves unto his son 
Isaac ; and yet, the angel of God stood by the couch 
of the dying patriarch, cheering his expiring moments 
with the certain, but then anticipated joys of paradisie ! 
And Paul ! the inspired preacher, whose spirit was 
caught up to the third Heaven, and heard things it was 
not lawful to utter — yes, Paul! who endured stripes 
and imprisonment, who was stoned and beaten wdtli 
rods, who was ofttimes in perils, on the w^aters, in the 
wilderness, among robbers, among false brethren, wdio 
endured weariness and painfulness, and hunger, and 
thirst, and cold, and w eakness — Paul ! who received 
just such a salary as this for preaching the gospel to 
the slaves and slave-holders in Rome, had no heart to 
pity the bonds of Onesimus! On the contrary, he chided 
him for absconding from his master, and bid him 
ask pardon of his God for going off upon " an under- 
ground railroad !" This is not all that Paul was guilty 
8- 



90 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

of— after arresting Onesimus, and returning him to 
his rich master, he accosted that master as his dearly 
beloved hi^other! 

It ^.vill not be charged that Paul had fallen from 
grace, and therefore became the advocate of slavery. 
He was translated to the third Heaven before he taught 
the masters and slaves of Rome their moral obligations, 
but after this, he died a most triumphant death, and 
declared that he had fought the good fight, and kept 
the faith, as well in reference to slavery as other vital 
questions. 

Moses received his divine authority on the Mount, 
before he wrote the law of bondage for the poor in 
Israel. And upon the precepts of the Patriarchs and 
Apostles, w^e rest our hopes for the present and eternal 
felicity of the masters and slaves of the South. 

But, a strange star has appeared in the North, 
ominous of a more merciful dispensation to the slave 
than that which appeared in Bethlehem of Judea ! 
And. twinkling over the dwellings of that holy band of 
Priests, who denounced the Fugative Slave-Bill of con- 
gress in terms of rebellious indignation in the house of 
Qod ; — and applying forty ^parson power to the present 
Chief Magistrate, touching the Kansas question, a 
voice is now to be heard in the New England heavens, 
saying, " Lo ! these — these holy priests are the friends 
of the colored race, and not the Saviour and his 
Apostles !" 

But I am to be told, for this is the argument of 
Abolitionism, that ''American Slavery' differs 'm form 
and principle from that of the chosen people of God, 
as set forth in the Bible. On behalf of the South, I 



r, Y W. G. BROWN LOW. 91 

accept the Bible terms as tlie definition of our slavery, 
and its precepts as the guide of our conduct. 

We desire nothing more — we will not be satisfied 
with anything less. To be candid, the South has 
fashioned her form of slavery after that in the Bible. 
Even the right to "buffet," which is esteemed so shock- 
ing to Abolitionists, finds its express license in the 
gospel. "We are there taught to take it patiently, 
when, as servants, we are '' buffet ed fo7' our faults.'' 
1 Peter, ii. 20. Nay, what is stronger, God directs the 
Hebrews to " bore Jioles in the ears of their brothers^'" 
to ruark them, when, under certain circumstances, they 
become ^^^'^y^iual slaves. The master is told, in the 
Mosaic law of bondage, to confine his slaves to the 
door-post, and there to bore his ears through with an 
aivl, as the mark o? perjyetual slavery. Exodus, xxi. 6. 
We have never gone this far at the South ; though, in 
all material respects, we have fashioned our system 
after that laid down in the Bible. 

American slavery is not only not sinful, but especially 
commanded by God through Moses, and approved 
through the Apostles by Christ. And I might con- 
clude its defence by asserting that what God ordains, 
and Christ sanctifies, should command the respect and 
toleration of even Northern Abolitionists. But I will 
remark, while on this subject, that the selling of bond- 
men, by and among the Hebrews, was authorized by 
the law of Moses, and the practice was in vogue before 
the giving of the law. In the 7iew law given from 
Sinai, the practice of selling zvhite brethren, Hebrews, 
was forbidden, but they were allowed to make merchan- 
dise of the Canaanites, the negro deseendaiiis of Ham, 



92 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

then the aborigines of old Canaan. The Hebrews 
were allowed to sell one another at home, but not to 
sell each other to strangers ; but heathen negroes^ they 
were allowed to buy and sell — to traffic in tliem as 
articles of trade and commerce, driving them to the 
best slave markets they could find. See Exodus, xxi. 
7 ; and Leviticus, xxv. 42. 

But to make the fact still more clear, namely, that 
the Hebrews did deal in slaves of the negro race, see 
the Book of Joel, 3d chapter, where we learn that the 
people of Tyre and Sidonia sold their little ones at 
drinking-houses for wine — separating infants from their 
mothers. I claim that the statutes of the Southern 
States are more lenient than the laws of Moses, 
because they protect the slaves against these Israelitish 
cruelties. See Bouvier's Law Dictionary, under the 
head of " Cruelty to Slaves." I quote from that book : 
"By the civil code of Louisiana, Act 192, it is en- 
acted, that when a master shall be convicted of cruel 
treatment to his slave, the judge may pronounce, 
beside the penalty established for such cases, that the 
slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to place 
him out of the reach of the power of his master who 
has abused him," I quote from the New York Herald, 
March 15, 1856, a statement I know to be true : — "A 
man named Hunter has been fined flOOO, and 
forfeited six slaves, at New Orleans, for selling them in 
such a manner as to separate mother and cldld, con- 
trary to the laws of Louisiana." 

Thus it will be seen, that we have laws to protect 
slaves in the South, laws to punish cruelty, and they 
are enforced. And though I am not expected to quote 



B Y W . G . B R O W N L W . 93 

"line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, 
and there a little," I will take occasion to say, once 
for all, that similar laws exist in all the Slave States ! 

As to the law of Moses authorizing the slave traffic, 
it was in force in America, and carried on chiefly by 
Northern men, until Congress passed a law in 1807, 
which took effect January 1st, 1808, declaring it to be 
piracy^ and punishing it with fine and imprisonment. 
Twenty years previously, whilst the Constitution of our 
country was being formed, a committee, a majority of 
whom were from Slave States, reported a section autho- 
rizing Congress to abolish the trade after the year 
1800 ; but this was zealously opposed by the Northern 
States, and the period was extended until 1808 ; thus 
giving eight additional years to the ''inhuman traffic," 
by the votes of JVezv Hampshire, Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut, while the votes of the South, including 
Virginia, were against such extension. Thus the trade 
was continued eight years longer than it should have 
been, by the votes of men from ISfeiv England, who 
considered it their duty to guard the commercial inte- 
rests of their pious constituents ! And what were legi- 
timate articles of commerce in those days, with which 
ships sailing from New England ports bought Africans 
in their own country? I answer, gunpowder, guns, 
trinkets, beads, looking-glasses, tobacco, segars, and 
New England rum. Slaves, in those days, and at dif- 
ferent times, were advertised to be exchanged for these 
articles, in the Boston papers ! 

But I am to be told that among the peculiarities of 
"American Slavery" are these: slaves are placed 
upon the block at the South, and sold to the highest 



94 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

bidder — that they are abused in " slave-pens, in cotton- 
fields, among cotton-gins, and in the rice swamps of 
the South." And I am to be told that abuse of power 
and authority, such as may be seen at the auction- 
blocks and wbipping-posts of the South, is a part and 
parcel of our system of slavery, and inseijarahle from 
it. I deny the truth of this assertion. Power is not 
always abused. All masters do not abuse their slaves 
— a small proportion do, and therefore abuse is sepa- 
rable from our system of slavery. In the Creole set- 
tlements of Louisiana, there are a few slave-owners 
w^ho are cruel, but these are neither Protestants^ nor 
native Americans. In our cotton-growing States, our 
hardest task-masters are Nortliern men, by birth and 
education ! Bad men abuse negroes ; good men do not. 
And in all cases, the abuse arises from the character 
and disposition of the master, and not from the system. 
If the principle were a correct one, that it is proper 
to pronounce and treat as sinful, everything that has 
been abused, we should soon undermine the foundation 
upon which society rests, and destroy the harmony of 
every relation that God has instituted. The relation 
of our lawgivers and judges has been abused. The 
marriage relation has been abused. The blessed Bible 
has been abused. The Sabbath has been abused. The 
truths of Christianity have been abused. And nowhere 
in this country have these things been more shamefully 
abused, than north of Mason and Dixon's Line ! Shall 
we then pronounce all these sacred relations and insti- 
tutions sinful, and treat them as such ? We ought not, 
and we ivill not; therefore, we should not, on the 
ground of its abuse by a few men, pronounce and treat 



BY W. G . B R W N L O W. 95 

as sinful, the relation and position of a slaveholder in 
the South! 

A correct idea of the real treatment of slaves in the 
South, may be gathered from the '' Advice, Orders, 
and Instructions" of our large slave-owners. I will 
read you some extracts from a small pamphlet, of fifteen 
pages, the title-page of which runs thus : 

"Advice, Orders, and Instructions for the Management^ 
Government, and Guidance of the General Agent, Overseers, 
and Employees, on the Plantations of Joseph A. S. AcK- 
LEN, situate in the Parish of West Feliciana, in the State 
of Louisiana, opposite the mouth of Red River.'' 

Mpv. Acklex is a wealthy planter, and owns several 
plantations, which are well stocked with negroes, and 
to each overseer he gives a copy of this pamphlet, and 
requires him to follow its teachings, to the letter. 
Hear what is said : 

" Punishment must never be cruel or abusive, for it is ab- 
solutely mean and unmanly to whip a negro from mere pas- 
sion and malice, and any man who can do so, is utterly unfit 
to have control of negroes." 

" My negroes are all permitted to come to me or my agent 
with their complaints, and in no instance shall they be pu- 
nished for so doing; and in my absence, I enjoin it upon my 
agent to attend to their complaints, and examine them, and 
if they have been cruelly or inhumanly treated, the overseer 
7}iust he at once discharged J' 

^•' Feel, and show that you feel, a kind and considerate 
regard for the negroes under your control. Never cruelly 
punish them, nor overwork them, or otherwise abuse them, 
but seek to render their situation as comfortable and con- 
tented as possible : see that their necessities be supplied ; 
that their food and clothing be good and sufficient; their 
houses comfortable ; and be kind and attentive to them in 
sickness and in old age. 

" See that the negroes are regularly fed, and that their 



96 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

food is wholesome, nutritious and well cooked, and that they 
keep themselves clean. At least once in every week, visit 
each of their houses, and see that they have been swept out 
and cleaned; examine their bedding, &c., and see that they 
have been well aired, their clothes mended, and everything 
attended to which conduces to their comfort and happiness. 

" If any of the negroes have been reported sick, without 
delay see what ails them, and that proper medicine and 
attendance are given. 

" The regularly appointed minister for my places must 
preach on Sundays during daylight. 

" Christianity, humanity and order improve and elevate 
all, and injure none ; whilst infidelity, selfishness and disorder 
curse some, delude others, and degrade all. I want all my 
people encouraged to cultivate religious feelings and morality, 
and punished for inhumanity to their children or stock, for 
profanity, lying or thieving." 

This is not an isolated case by any means, but these 
and similar regulations govern all the large slave plan- 
tations in the South. Do they not compare favorably 
with the treatment of white slaves at the North ? I 
think so. Nor is it at all strange that most of our 
fuo-itive slaves, after a short residence in a free State, 
desire to return to bondage again ! Hear the following 
items, which are only so many out of hundreds of 
similar cases, constantly occurring : 

^'Returned to Slavery. — The Hartford (Connecticut) 
Times gives an account of Caroline Banks and her children, 
and Mary Francis, slaves lately liberated by their mistress, 
(Mrs. Sarah Branch, of Chesterfield, Va.,) who have volun- 
tarily returned to bondage, after trying to support themselves 
in Boston as free people. They declared that^ they have 
toiled constantly and could scarcely gain a subsistence, and 
wanted a master to protect them." — South Carolinian. 

''A Voluntary Slave. — Instances of this kind are be- 
coming more and more numerous every day. — We clip from 
the Frontier {Texas) News of the 3d July, 1858. 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 97 

^' While in attendance on the District Court, in Tarrant 
county, one day of the previous week, I witnessed the 
ceremonies, on the occasion of a free negro voluntarily going 
into slavery. He came into court cheerfully, and there stated 
in answer to questions propounded by the court, that he 
knew the consequence of the act — that he had selected as 
his master W. M. Robinson^ without any compulsion or per- 
suasion, but of his own free will and accord. Two gentlemen 
came in and stated under oath that they had signed his 
petition at his request, and that the gentleman he had selected 
as his master, was a good citizen and an honorable man, &c. 
Jerry is a fine looking negro, some forty years of age, and 
appears to be smart." 

"■ Prefer Slavery. — A negro man, who had been emanci- 
pated by his master's will, voluntarily re-entered servitude 
on Monday last, preferring the condition of a slave to that 
of removal to a free State. He selected Mr. Huckstep as 
his future master. His value was assessed at $650, one-half 
of which amount Mr. Huckstep has to pay into the State 
treasury.'' — Charlottsvilh (Fa.) Advocate. 

"PETITION FOR VOLUNTARY ENSLAVEMENT, 

'' IN CHANCERY AT ROGERSVILLE, TENNESSEE. 

^^ Ben, a man of color, and William Miller, Esq. 

" Notice is hereby given that Ben, a man of color, has this 
day filed his Petition in our said Court, asking to become the 
slave of the said Miller, under an act of the General Assem- 
bly of said State, passed the 8th day of March, 1858. 

" R. C. Fain, C & M." 
''.May2^th, 1858." 

I am personally acquainted with, the parties in the 
last of the several cases here named, as w^ell as with 
the clerk and master in chancery — they reside about 
75 miles from where I do. I reside in East TennesseCj 
a section of the State comprising 30 counties — I have 
resided there for 30 years, and 20 years of that time I 
have been the editor of a public journal, having quite 
9 



98 AFFIRMATIVE, II 



a large circulation. I only name this fact to show that 
I have some little acquaintance there. I feel warranted 
in the assertion that one-half of all the negro slaves in 
East Tennessee, would refuse their freedom to-day, if 
tendered to them, no matter under what circumstances. 
And fully tivo-tliirds would refuse to be set at liberty, 
if required to leave the State ! 

Now, I hold this truth to be self-evident, that what- 
ever improves the moral, mental and physical condition 
of a people, is a blessing to them, and ought to be 
'' perpetuated." That slavery has improved the moral, 
mental, and physical condition of the negroes enslaved, 
must be evident to every one who compares the con- 
dition of the southern slaves with the free negroes of 
the North, and of the West India Islands, to say 
nothing of the natives of Africa. Nay, more, slavery, 
only, can elevate the negro race from their state of 
pristine barbarism ; the continuation of slavery is abso- 
lutely necessary to prevent the civilized negroes of the 
South from relapsing into their old savage state, in 
which the slaveholders at first found them. 

The negroes of Africa are among the most degraded 
of the colored race. They subsist principally upon the 
spontaneous productions of the forest. They have no 
knowledge of agriculture, architecture, the mechanic 
arts, or any of those arts and sciences which tend to 
elevate and expand the intellect, and secure the rational 
enjoyments of life. The light of Divine truth has 
never pierced their benighted minds ; the feeble opera- 
tion of their reason has not even revealed to them a 
glimmering of the existence of a God ; and worshipping 



B Y W. G . B 11 W N L W. 99 

stones, insects, and reptiles, their moral character is in 
harmony with the grovelling objects of their adoration. 
Fierce and cruel, cowardly and treacherous, ignorant 
and lascivious — they are engaged in constant wars, 
burning their enemies at the stake, and feeding on 
their flesh — whole tribes in abject slavery — it is not 
to be wondered at that intelligent travellers have been 
led to class them as a superior species of the monkey 
tribe ! 

Turn from this loathsome picture of brutalized hu- 
manity, to the sunny plains of the South, the land of 
the olive and the vine, where the great ruler of the 
universe has covered the earth with tropical fruits, and 
what do w^e see ? We behold hundreds of thousands 
of industrious, civilized laborers, clothed in the garb 
of civilization, eating the bread of contentment, pro- 
duced by their own labor, under the supervision of 
Caucasian intelligence and Christian benevolence, and 
increasing in numbers with a rapidity, which clearly 
indicates that their physical condition is superior to 
that of any other servile laborers on earth ! 

Revelation has risen, full-orbed, and shines in a 
burst of glory on the benighted minds of our Southern 
slaves, chasing away the gloom of superstition. Scarcely 
a Sabbath rolls round, but hundreds of thousands of 
Southern slaves, listen to the glad tidings of the Gospel, 
and hundreds of thousands of them have attached 
themselves to the Church of Christ. There are as 
many slaves within the fold of the Church in the South, 
in proportion to the population, as there are white 
persons, if not more ! 



100 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

Connected with the Methodists, are 200,000 

Missionary and Hard-Shell Baptists 170,000 

Old and New School Presbyterians 18,000 

Cumberland Presbyterians 20,000 

Episcopalians 7,000 

All other sects combined 26,000 

Methodists in Virginia and Maryland, 
included in the Northern Methodist 
Church 25,000 

Total Colored members in the South 466,000 

When in Mobile last winter, I assisted the venera- 
ble Bishop Kavanagh in the Sabbath services, at one 
of the several African churches in that city. It was 
a large brick church — not fine, but substantial, and 
seated 1500 persons. It cost $7000 and $6000 of 
that was contributed by the slaves themselves, who have 
a membership in that congregation of 700. They were 
well dressed, and spiritual in their devotions, turning 
to the pages in their Hymn Books when announced 
from the pulpit. I there saw pious slaves rejoicing 
around the altar with their wealthy masters, and the 
good Bishop ! I have seen the same in Savannah, 
Macon, Memphis, Nashville, Charleston, Richmond, 
Hunts ville, and in the city where I reside ; and in most 
of these I have preached to the slaves. And if, at 
anytime, I have found fault with the colored congrega- 
tions in the South, it has been because of their extrav- 
agance in dress, and the wearing of an excess of jeiv- 
ellery^ and of the fluttering gew-gaws worn by your fine 
ladies in Philadelphia ! 

Do the Anti-Slavery clergy ':^f the North — does my 
Reverend Abolition competiror — see nothing in all 



BY W. G. BR OWN LOW. 101 

this, for which to thank God ? , Millions of dollars have 
been spent, and hundreds of valuable lives sacrificed- 
in the attempt to evangelize the negroes of Africa, and 
yet slavery — the abhorred, cursed, and reviled institu- 
tion of slavery — has brought five times more negroes 
into the fold of the Church than all the missionary 
operations of the world combined. Slavery has tamed, >^ 
civilized, Ohristiamzed, if you please, the brutal negroes 
brought to our shores, by New England kidnappers; 
it has elevated them physically, mentally; morally, and 
therefore it has proven a blessing to them, and ought 
to be ^'perpetuated.'' 

The sinless spirits that surround God's throne to-day, 
who are transported with all the ecstasy of an over- 
whelming afiection, and bend themselves in rapturous 
adoration at the shrine of infinite and unspotted holi- 
ness ; and behold with heavenly fascination the moral 
beauty of slavery, which even throws a softening lustre 
over the awfulness of the Godhead ; those pure and 
holy spirits, whose sinless existence lies in the know- 
ledge and admiration of Deity ; and who see sin in all 
its malignity, and salvation in all its mysterious great- 
ness, look down with delight upon what slavery is doing 
for the African race ! Oh ! with ^vhat desire do they 
ponder on God's ways, when, amidst the urgency of 
all demands, which look so high and indispensable, they 
see the unfolding of the attribute of mercy, and the 
Supreme Lawgiver bending upon the abject African 
race an eye of tenderness, and in his profound and 
unsearchable wisdom, devising for them the institution 
of slavery, as a plan of restoration ; the everlasting 
Son, moving from his dwelling-place in heaven, to 
9* 



102 A F F I R M A T I V E . II. 

carry it forward tlirough all the difficulties by which 
it is encompassed ; and by tlie virtue of his mysterious 
sacrifice, magnifying the glory of every other per- 
fection ; making mercy triumph over them all, and 
throwing open a way by which the polluted African 
(with the whole lustre of the divine character untar- 
nished) may be re-admitted into fellowship vfith God, 
and be again brought back within the circle of his loyal 
and affectionate family. Who would have thought it ! 
The wonder-working God, who has strewed the field 
of immensity with so many worlds, and who would 
shatter them to atoms, before his truth or holiness 
should undergo the least suspicion of a stain ; comes 
down to dwell with man, and by his wisdom, with the 
fragments of a different chaos, (the wreck of rebellion) 
brings light, life, harmony, and salvation, to the African 
race, through the mild and benignant institution of 
slavery ! Lord God ! thou art great in counsel ! 
Thou art the wonderful Counsellor ! 

But I go further. While I hold, and I think I have 
proven, that the condition of Southern negroes has 
been vastly improved by slavery ; I also assert, without 
fear of successful contradiction, that slavery, only, 
could have worked that improvement, and that the 
preservation of the relation of master and slave is 
essential to the continued improvement and future 
welfare of the negro race of the South. I assert that 
''American Slavery" is a blessing ; a blessing to the 
master, a blessing to the non-slave-holders of the South, 
a blessing to the civilized white race in general, and a 
blessing to the negro slaves in particular. 

To prove this I bring forward the testimony of 



BY W . G . B R AV N L W . 103 

Abolitionists against slavery. In tlieir zeal to cast 
odium on slavery, the Abolitionists prove everything 
in favor of the "peculiar institution;" for they prove 
that the slaves of America are the only negroes to be 
found who are really contented, comfortable and happy. 
The American Missionary Association^ in their seventh 
Annual Report, for 1853, at page 49, says : 

" The number of missionaries and teachers in Canada, 
with which the year commenced, has been greatly reduced. 
Early in the year, Mr. Kirkland wrote to the Committee, 
that the opposition to white missionaries, manifested by the 
colored people of Canada, had so greatly increased, by the 
interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored men, pre- 
tending to be ministers of the Grospel, that he thought his 
own and his wife's labors, and the funds of the Assoeiation, 
could be better employed elsewhere/' 

Next in order, I call your attention to the Annual 
Report of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society J for 1853, which discourses thus : 

" The friends of emancipation in the United iStates have 
been disappointed in some respects at the results in the West 
Indies, because they expected too much. A nation of slaves 
cannot at once be converted into a nation of intelligent, in- 
dustrious, and moral freemen. — It is not too much, even 
now, to say of the people of Jamaica, their condition is ex- 
ceedingly degraded, their morals wofully corrupt. But this 
must by no means be understood to be of universal applica- 
tion. With respect to those who have been brought under a 
healthful educational and religious influence, it is not true. 
But as respects the great mass, whose humanity has been 
ground out of them by cruel oppression — whom no good 
Samaritan hand has yet reached — how could it be otherwise ? 
We wish to turn the tables ; to supplant oppression by right- 
eousness, insult by compassion and brotherly-kindness, hatred 
and contempt by love and winning meekness, till we allure 
these wretched ones to the hope and enjoyment of manhood 



104 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

and virtue. — The means of education and religious instruc- 
tion are better enjoyed, although but little appreciated and 
improved by the great mass of the people. It is also true, 
that the moral sense of the people is becoming somewhat en- 
lightened. But while this is true, yet their moral condition 
is very far from being what it ought to be. It is exceedingly 
dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most 
alarming extent among the people. The almost universal 
prevalence of intemperance is another prolific source of the 
moral darkness and degradation of the people. The great 
mass, among all classes of the inhabitants, from the Grovernoi 
in his palace to the peasant in his hut — from the Bishop iu 
bis sown to the beggar in his rags — are all slaves to their 
cups.^' 

To strengthen the charges made by American Abo- 
litionists, I add the following from the London Times^ 
of the same date. In speaking of the results of eman- 
cipation in Jamaica, it says : 

" The negro has not acquired with his freedom any habits 
of industry or morality. His independence is but little better 
than that of an uncaptured brute. Having accepted few of 
the restraints of civilization, he is amenable to few of its 
necessities ; and the wants of his nature are so easily satisfied, 
that at the current rate of wages, he is called upon for nothing 
but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks, therefore, in- 
stead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become 
vagrants and squatters, and it is now apprehended that with 
the failure of cultivation in the island will come the failure 
of its resources for instructing or controlling its population. 
So imminent does this consummation appear, that memorials 
have been signed by classes of colonial society hitherto 
standing aloof'from politics, and not only the bench and the 
bar, bufthe bishop, clergy, and ministers of all denomina- 
tions in the island, without exceptions, have recorded their 
conviction, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious 
and educational institutions of the island must be abandoned, 
and the masses of the population retrograde to barbarism." 



BY W. G. BROAVNLOW. 105 

Mr. Biglow, editor of the New York Evening Post, 
a few years ago spent the winter in Jamaica, and in 
noticing the decline in the Agriculture of the Island, 
and the quantity of lands thrown out of cultivation, he 
says : 

'^ This decHne has been going on from year to year, daily 
becoming more alarming, until at length the island has 
reached what would appear to be the last profound of distress 
and misery, when thousands of people do not know, when 
they rise in the morning, whence or in what manner they are 
to procure bread for the day/^ 

Governor Wood, of Ohio, on his way to Valparaiso, 
in 1853, thus describes what he witnessed at Kingston, 
Jamaica, while the steamer remained in that port : 

" We saw many plantations, the buildings dilapidated 

fields of sugar-cane half- worked and apparently poor, and 
nothing but that which will grow without the labor of man, 
appeared luxuriant and flourishing. The island itself is of 
great fertility, one of the best of the Antilles ; but all the 
large estates upon it are now fast going to ruin. In the 
harbor were not a dozen ships of all nations — no business 
was doing, and everything you heard spoken was in the lan- 
guage of complaint. Since the blacks have been liberated 
they have become indolent, insolent, degraded, and dishonest. 
They are a rude, beastly set of vagabonds, lyin^j naked about 
the streets, as filthy as the Hottentots, and, I believe, worse." 

Bishop Kip, of the Episcopal Church, on his way to 
California, in 1853, bears this testimony as to what he 
witnessed at the same port, while the steamer stopped 
to take in coal : 

" The streets are crowded with the most wretched-lookino- 
negroes to be seen on the face of the earth. Lazy, shiftless 
and diseased; they will not work, since the manumission act 



106 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

Las freed them. Even coaling tlie steamer is done by women. 
About a hundred march on board in a line with tubs on their 
heads (tubs and coal together weighing about 90 pounds), 
and with a wild song empty them into the hold. The men 
work a day, and then live on it a week. The depth of degra- 
dation to which the negro population has sunk, is, we are 
told, indescribable.'^ 

But here is a portion of a letter from G-erritt Smith 
to Gov. Hunt of N^ew York, in 1852. My friend Mr, 
Pryne assisted, but the other day, in a '^ Liberty 
Party" Convention at Syracuse, in nominating Mr. 
Smith for Governor. Speaking of his ineffectual 
labors in trying to prevail on the free colored people 
to betake themselves to mechanical and agricultural 
pursuits, he says: 

" Suppose, moreover, that, during all these fifteen years, 
they had been quitting the cities, iclicre the mass of th^m rot 
hoth 'physically and morally, and had gone into the country 
to become farmers and mechanics — suppose, I say, all this 
— and who would have the hardihood to affirm that the Colo- 
nization Society lives upon the malignity of the whites — but 
it is true that it lives upon voluntary degradation of the 
blacks. I do not say that the colored people are more de- 
based than white people would be if persecuted, oppressed, 
and outraged as are the colored people. But I do say that 
they are debased, deeply debased ; and that to recover them- 
selves they must become heroes, self-denying heroes, capable 
of achieving a great moral victory — a two-fold victory — a 
victory over themselves and a victory over their enemies." 

So says Gerritt Smith, Mr. Pryne's Liberty candi- 
date for Governor of New York ! So says the great 
apostle of Northern Abolitionism, to whom my com- 
petitor expects to be consigned after death, labelled 
'"'right side up with careT' 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 107 

I conclude my testimony on this point with an ex- 
tract from the speech in the Canadian Parliament, but 
recently, by Col. Prince, an Englishman educated in 
all the Anti-Slavery prejudices peculiar to the English 
school. I copy from the New York Day-Book, for 
July 17, 1858: 

'' Hon. Col. Prince said he was wishful to move a rider to 
the measure. The black people who infested the land were 
the greatest curse to the Province. The lives of the people 
of the AYest were made wretched by the inundation of these 
animals ; and many of the largest farmers of the county of 
Kent had been compelled to leave their beautiful farms, be- 
cause of the pestilential, swarthy swarms. What were these 
wretches fit for ? Nothing. They cooked our victuals and 
shampooned us ; but who would not rather that these duties 
should be performed by white men ? The blacks were a 
worthless, useless, thriftless set of beings. They were too 
indolent, lazy, and ignorant to work, too proud to be taught; 
and not only that, if the criminal calendars of the country 
were examined, it would be found that they were a majority 
of the criminals. They were so detestable, that unless some 
method was adopted preventing their influx into this country 
by the ' underground railroad,' the people of the West would 
be obliged to drive them out by open violence. The bill 
before the House imposed a capitation tax upon the emigrants 
from Europe; and the object of this motion was to levy a 
similar tax upon blacks who came hither from the States. 
He now moved, seconded by Mr. Patton, that a capitation tax 
of 5s. for adults, and 3s. 6d. for children, above one year and 
under fourteen years of age, be levied on persons of color 
emigrating to Canada from any foreign country. Ought not 
the western men to be protected from the rascalities and vil- 
lanies of the black wretches ? He found these men with 
fire, and food, and lodging, when they were in need ; and he 
would be bound to say that the black men of the county of 
Essex would speak well of him in this respect. But he 
could not admit them as being equal to white men ; and, 
after a long and close observation of human nature, he had 
come to the conclusion that the black man was born to and 



108 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

intended for slavery, and that lie was fit for nothing else. 
(^Scnsafion.^ Hon. gentlemen might try to groan him down, 
but he was not to be moved by mawkish sentiment; and he 
was persuaded that they might as well try to change the 
spots of the leopard, as to make the black a good citizen. 
He had told black men so ; and the lazy rascals shrugged 
their shoulders, and wished they had never ran away from 
their 'good old massa' in Kentucky. If there was anything 
unchristian in what he proposed, he could not see it, and he 
feared that he was not born a Christian." 

Before I take my seat, I will notice, though briefly, 
tlie singular speech of the gentleman • last evening ! 
He spoke some three-quarters of an hour after I had 
concluded my speech of one hour and a quarter, and 
abruptly closed, by saying that I had advanced no 
arguments for him to answer ! I should be sorry to 
think that the impartial and intelligent portion of the 
audience were of the same opinion. • When I beheld 
upon his table, as I did, his array of pamphlets, bound 
books, and other Abolition documents, I really looked 
for a reply as ponderous as the famous Report of Lord 
North to the British House of Commons ! 

The gentleman set out by saying that he would 
make an announcement that would even startle the Free 
Sellers and Black Republicans of Philadelphia! He 
was for driving slavery from the Slave States — the 
Union should rock as long as it rested upon the bosoms 
of four millions of slaves; that, until it was abolished, 
Southern masters would have to sleep with pistols under 
their pillows ! This did startle even the Free Sellers 
and Republicans of Philadelphia ! And I am proud 
to know that such incendiary — nay, such infinitely 
infernal — sentiments, meet with the indignant frowns, 
scorn, and contempt of all virtuous, honorable, and 



BY AV . G . B R O W N L W . 100 

conservative men in Philadelphia. I know the good 
people of Philadelphia; I know them to be a conser- 
vative people, going to no extremes, either with Pro- 
Slaverj men or Abolitionists. I shall so represent 
them in the South. I will point our people, with plea- 
sure, to the period, not many years ago, when, in tlie 
immediate vicinity of this magnificent hall, they assem- 
bled and burned to ashes a building desecrated by Abo- 
lition meetings, from which buck negroes walked home 
with white women ! 

But we must sleep, in the South, with pistols under 
our pillows ! Yes, this is the spirit, and these are the 
purposes, of that class of Abolitionists of which this 
gentleman has assumed to be a leader. If ever our 
blood is shed in the South, it will be by our negroes, 
whose Southern raising and instincts have imparted to 
them the chivalry of the South. If none but hlue- 
hellied Yankees and unmitigated Northern Abolition- 
ists come down upon us, we shall sleep with nothing 
more terrific under our pillows than spike-gimhlets ! 
If, however, at any time, an army of Abolitionists 
from the North shall conclude to make a descent upon 
the slaveholders of the South, and this gentleman ac- 
companies the army, I will thank him to let me know 
which regiment he is in. And "when Greek meets 
Greek, then comes the tug of war." 

This determination on the part of Abolitionists 
either to crush slavery where it is, or to dissolve the 
Union, is becoming general. The following card, 
signed by five of this gentleman's associates and "boon 
companions," shows their spirit, and their utter dis- 
regard of all laws, human and divine : 
10 



110 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

"Whereas, it must be obvious to all, that the American 
Union is constantly becoming more and more divided, by 
slavery, into two distinct and antagonistic nations, between 
whom harmony is impossible, and even ordinary intercourse 
is becoming dangerous; 

"And whereas Slavery has now gained entire control over 
the three branches of our National Grovernment, Executive, 
Judiciary, and Legislative; has so interpreted the Constitu- 
tion as to deny the right of Congress to establish freedom 
even in the territories; and by the same process has removed 
all legal protection from a large portion of the people of the 
Free States; and has inflicted, at many times and places, out- 
rages far greater than those our fathers rose in arms to repel ; 

"And whereas there seems no probability that the future 
will, in these respects, be different from the past, under ex- 
isting State relations : 

"The undersigned respectfully invite their fellow citizens 
of the Free States, to meet in Convention, at , in Octo- 
ber, 1857, to consider the practicability, probability, and ex- 
pediency of a separation between the Free and Slave States, 
and to take such other measures as the condition of the times 
may require. 

"Thos. W. Higginson, 
Wendell Phillips, 
F. W. Bird, 
Daniel Mann, 
Wm. L. G-arrison." 

But the gentleman complained of my abuse — said I 
uttered hard things against Northern men and North- 
ern society. Ye gods and little fishes ! Only think 
of Ahram Pryne^ the bitter and unrelenting editor of 
the McG-rawville Reformer, whose columns, day in 
and day out, afford such an intemperance of bad lan- 
guage, and such an exhibition of abusive words, towards 
the entire South, as must be offensive to God, and all 
decent and conservative men, complaining of hard 
words applied to Northern men and Northern society ! 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW 111 

The dictionaries of '' Billingsgate" may be searched in 
vain to find language more unbecoming a decent press, 
not to say one conducted by a minister of Ilim, wlio, 
■when He was reviled, reviled not again ! No longer 
ago than last evening, this gentleman more than once 
applied the term of '■^ 7'uffian " to slaveholders, and in 
his mad ravings, under the excitement of the occasion, 
he descended to the use of such foul denunciations, that 
from that, or some other cause, a score of gentlemen 
left the hall at one time ! I have listened to no paral- 
lel to his denunciations, in the ribald partisan ha- 
rangues of political demagogues ! And yet the gen- 
tleman complains that I use hard words toward the 
Abolition villifiers of the South, and the vile conspira- 
tors against this glorious Union ! 

Here is an article from the New York Independent, 
of November, 1856, one of the gentleman's Abolition 
exchanges. I have no doubt that he copied it with ap- 
probation ; and now does not blush to endorse it, foul 
and false as it is in every line : 

" The mass of the population of the Atlantic coast of the^' 
slave region of the South, are descended from the transported 
convicts and outcasts of Great Britain. For a century pre- 
vious to the lie volution, thousands of those offscourings of 
the jails and hul-ks of England were poured out on the shores 
of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and G-eorgia, — and no/ 
where else ! Those were the Penal Colonies or Great 
Britain. Their legislative history proves it. And Captain 
James Cook was sent on his second voyage of discovery to 
seek a new country which might serve as a substitute for 
those lost convict settlements. 

" glorious chivalry and hereditary aristocracy of the 
South ! Peerless first families of Virginia and Carolina. 
' Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole 
of the pit whence ye were digged.' Progeny of the high- 



112 AFFIRMATIVE, II. 

' waymen, and horse-fhieves, and slieep-stealers, and pickpock- 
ets of Old England ! ^ Go, vilest of the vile,' out of all 
union witli communities of decent origin, and following your 
true moral and natural affinities, seek your real kindred and 
political fraternitie-s with those whose ancestors were turned 
from the ocean-path which yours took, and founded their 
^ chivalrous' colonies in New South Wales and Van Dieman's 
Land. Go to Botany Bay, with your hereditary lawlessness, 
violence, and murderous, thievish propensities, and stain no 
longer the character of that true and noble-descended free 
American people who have too long endured the loathsome 
connection with you." 

But again, the Age. of Reason and Freedom^ an 
Abolition paper of the Parson Pryne school, published 
at the Berlin Heights, Free Love Institution, near San- 
dusky, Ohio, after admitting that the Bible favors the 
institution of Slavery, adds : 

" My heart's blood curdles at the thought. You may 
search all heathendom, from the blackest half-human of Ethi- 
opia down to the most refined Caucasian, and you cannot find 
one so wovstrous, so inluiman, and so infernal. You may 
say this is not a true representation of God. It is the God 
for whose cause more human blood has been spilt than for 
all other causes combined — the God of the Bible — the God 
my brother cursed. It is the God of the religion that ba- 
nished Roger Williams from the commonwealth because he 
believed in extending civil rights outside of their own church. 
* * * That sacrificed the life of my school- 

fellow, Eichard Dillingham, in the Nashville Penitentiary, 
and in the Queen City caused a mother to murder her own 
child. The God of the religion that upholds the oppression 
and robbery of the poor on the one hand, and the extrava- 
gance and vice of the rich on the other." 

The gentleman said, in so many words, that there 
never could be a slave legally held in bondage on this 
Continent — that the King's Bench decreed three years 



BY \V. G. BROWN LOW. 113 



before the Constitution of the United States was framed, 
that slavery shouhi not exist in these colonies ! Then 
the decrees of the King's Bench should be more bind- 
ing on the citizens of the United States than their own 
Constitution, and the laws enacted under it. What an 
argument for a man of respectable pretensions to make ! 
It was because of the oppressive decrees of the King's 
Bench, if the gentleman please, — because of the op- 
pressive taxes imposed upon these colonies, that they 
rebelled, and declared the war of the Revolution. 
Verily, if the decrees of the King's Bench, passed be- 
fore our independence was declared, relating to slavery, 
are still of binding force here, they are equally bind- 
ing in reference to taxes. The gentleman must be a 
Moyalist, and if so, he had better repair to England. 

His argument touchino: the Constitution, and the 
right of States to enact laws favoring slavery, was as 
destitute of reason as any thing could be. It was the 
stale material of the Abolitionists, often confuted, and 
as often re-hashed by abler hands than Mr. Pryne. 
Its shallow commonplace phraseology, was relieved by 
the bitterness and malignity of the spirit he displayed. 

The gentleman commenced his speech, and then con- 
cluded it, in a whining tone, and in suppliant language, 
complaining that he was not distinguished — that his 
name and fame had not been heralded in advance of 
his arrival ! These were items that the audience were 
aware of, without his publishing it ! 

And how did he meet my charge against the people 

of ISTew England for stealing negroes from the coast 

of Africa, and selling them into perpetual bondage, for 

the sake of gain ? Why, gentlemen, he boasted that 

10* 



114 AFFIRMATIVE^ IT. 

they liacl the enterprise to steal, and the South had 
not ! How revolting is such a boast ! What a mon- 
strosity for a minister of our Holy Religion, to boast 
that he has descended from, and is associated with a 
people who have the energy and will to live by plunder 
and piracy ! 

Finally, I understood the gentleman to deny in most 
emphatic terms, that Abraham ever owned slaves, or 
held his fellow men in bondage, and to call for the 
proof ! Does the gentleman suppose that I will con- 
sume my time in looking out, and reciting the proof 
of what every Sunday-School scholar in the land 
knows ? Is he a teacher in Israel, and thus ignorant 
of the teachings of God's word ? If he will read the 
Old Testament Scriptures, he will there learn that 
Abraham, called the father of the faithful, was a large 
slave-holder — that upon his death bed, like a Southern 
planter, he executed his last will and testament, be- 
queathing his numerous slaves unto his son Isaac — 
that the angel of God stood by his dying couch, ap- 
proved the disposition he made of his slave property^ 
and cheered the good old slave-holder, in his expiring 
moments, with the certain, but then anticipated joys 
of paradise ! And if their custom were, in those days, 
to record wills in Probate Courts, I have no doubt but 
this angel of the living God, was the subscribing wit- 
ness ! 

Intending to give the gentleman a thorough course 
of instructions during this week, upon the great and 
exciting topic of American slavery, I propose to give 
them to him in hroken doses, and hence I yield him the 
stand, that he may make such defence as he feels pre- 
pared for ! 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?'^ 

Negative, II. — By Abram Pryne. 

Ladies and gentlemen : — I promise you that I 
shall not, in my speech of this evening, or on any 
evening during this debate, go beyond an hour by a 
second ; and I regret that the length of my opponent's 
speech unfortunately crowds me so much at the end of 
this discussion, that I am obliged to beg your patience 
in giving me a fair hearing, as I have plead for your 
patience towards him. I shall now proceed directly to 
my argument. 

The first question that I have to raise here is, Does 
God sanction American slavery ? Is God to be 
regarded as the supporter and upholder of American 
slavery ? Let us, for one moment, measure the match- 
less magnitude of this question, and see what it in- 
volves. What a question to ask in the light of the 
Divine Government — whether God sanctions slavery ! 
It is equivalent to asking whether God sanctions the 
•worst theft that has ever desolated the world. If, as 
was so conclusively argued last night, American slavery 
had its beginning and its continued existence in theft, 
then you cannot prove that God sanctions slavery 
unless you prove him to be a thief. He who said, 
" Thou shalt not steal," is he to be regarded as the 
abettor of the mightiest robber-foray ever undertaken 
against the human race ? He who threw the guard of 

(115) 



116 NEGATIVE, II. 

his o^Yn royal prohibition of theft around every article 
of property which man can acquire, did he leave 
humanity unprotected from man-thieves, by the bul- 
warks of his law ? Nay, more, did he make a special 
provision for the stealing of men. Who dares look 
into the Bible for proof that he is such a God ? 

Again, it involves the question whether God is the 
supporter of the disruption of the marriage relation, 
the breaking up of the marriage ties and of wholesale 
adultery. The gentleman on the other side has kindly 
vouchsafed some information, all new to me, about the 
Five Points in New York. He has also told us that 
there are Five Points in the South ; and that was not 
new to me, for I knew before that there was a miniature 
Five Points on each plantation in the South. Now, 
gentlemen, to prove to you that slavery does thus break 
up the marriage relation, let me read a single authority : 

'' Slaves were not entitled to the conditions of matrimony, 
and therefore they had no rehef in cases of adultery ; nor 
were they the proper objects of cognation or affinity, but of 
quasi-cognation only." — (^Dr. Tai/lor's ^'Elements of the 
CivU Laiv;' 2^. 429.) 

God, to be a slave-holder, must sanction that ; and 
w^ho dare blaspheme Him by making such a declaration ? 

Ao-ain : does God sanction the violation of the 
parental relation ? For slavery's law allows the master 
to separate father and child, if he will. God, who in- 
stituted this relation, must be proved to sanction irs 
continued and perpetual disruption, if he sanctions 
slavery. Here is the testimony of the Savannah River 
Baptist Association on this point : 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 117 

*' In 1835, the following- query relating to slaves was pro- 
pounded to the Savannah River Baptist Association of 
ministers : Whether, in case of involuntary separation of such 
a character as to preclude all future intercourse, the parties 
may be allowed to marry again ? 

''Answer. — That such separation, among persons situated 
as our slaves are, is, civilly, a separation by death, and they 
believe that, in the sight of God, it would be so viewed. To 
forbid second marriages in such cases, would be to expose 
the parties not only to greater hardships and stronger 
temptations, but to church censure for acting in obedience to 
their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a 
regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the 
spirit of that command which regulates marriage between 
Christians. The slaves are not free agents, and a dissolution 
by death is not more entirely without their consent and 
beyond their control than by such separation.'^ 

Again : do God and the Bible sanction robbing the 
laborer of his hire ? Hear me answer in the language 
of James : 

" Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down 
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : and 
the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the 
ears of the Lord of Saboath.'^ 

What say you, workingmen of Philadelphia, does 
God sanction the wholesale robbery of the laborer of 
his wages ? 

But I pass to another question : does God sanction 
the stealing of men, women and children ? Hear me 
answer in the language of the Bible : " He that stealeth 
a man or telleth him, or if he be found in his hands, 
shall surely be put to death," (and every one that takes 
the man from his own God-appointed ownership steals 
him,) " and he that selleth him," and, to cap the climax, 
to cover the whole ground of slavery, he that holdeth 



118 NEGATIVE; II. 

him in his hands, the Bible says, shall be put to death. 
Of course the children of slaves are born with the 
right to freedom, and he that enslaves them as really 
steals them as if he brought them in chains from the 
coast of Africa. 

Let me say that the nature and relation of man for- 
bid that God should sanction the institution of slavery. 
The Bible tells us that God created man in his own 
image, breathed into him immortality, threw around 
him the. drapery of his own form; and slavery 
claims the right to hang chains upon the form of God, 
to load down with fetters the human soul, around which 
God threw the mantle of his own beautiful divinity in 
the form in which he enshrined it. Oh ! tell me not 
of impiety of any other kind in the presence of that 
overpowering impiety which would load the form of 
God himself with chains, and claim to derive from God 
the right to do it. 

Does not the Divine image which man bears give us 
some impression with reference to God's own regard 
for the sacredness of his rights ? Does not the fact 
that God clothed man in His own form, condemn and 
convict him who, with ruthless hand, would degrade the 
soul of man, and enslave him ? Has not the guarantee 
of God's own form been thrown around the soul to 
secure its freedom ? Will you hang chains on God ? 
Will you bind shackles upon the form which He wears ? 
I proceed now more directly to the textual argument 
which is involved in this question, though I shall not 
be able to follow my friend throughout. He started 
with the statement that it was the business of the nega- 
tive to follow the argument of the affirmative. I beg 



BY ABRAIM PRYNE 119 

leave to put in a condition — that the affirmative shall 
produce an argument capable of being followed. Where 
that happens to be lacking, I, of course, shall be unable 
to follow it. Who can follow a pound of feathers before 
a gale of wind. While following the arrangement that 
I had made before I listened to his speech, I shall pro- 
ceed a little out of his order, but will reach every point 
that he has touched. 

In the first place he hints at the curse said to have 
been pronounced by Noah on the descendants of Ham ; 
and this curse we are to accept as a reason why the 
black man should be enslaved. Noah's curse, let me 
say, was pronounced on Canaan ; and there is no more 
proof that Canaan was a black man than that the 
whitest man before me is a black man. 

But, not to dwell on that, what is the strength and 
force of Noah's curse ? The whole story is told in the 
verse which I will read : 

'^And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his sons 
had done unto him, and he said, Cursed be Canaan ; a ser- 
vant of servants shall he be unto his brethren/' 

What a terrible gap. must be filled up to reach the 
inference that this curse of drunken Noah, just waking 
up from the effect of his over-dose of wine, carries with 
it the sanction of God ! Who says that God cursed 
Canaan ? The Bible makes no such statement ; it 
merely tells us of Noah, that on suddenly rising after 
a drunken fit, and supposing that his grandson had 
mistreated him, he, as drunken men are apt to do — 

"Unpacked his heart with words, 
And fell to cursing, like a very drab."* 

* A scullion. 



120 NEGATIVE, II. 

But wlio can give us, from the Bible or from any 
other source, the shadow of evidence that God ever 
sanctioned that curse ? I call on my opponent for the 
proof. 

God is not to be held responsible for the angry words 
of a patriarch in his wine, nor for all the deeds of the 
patriarchs. The Bible states facts — but by no means 
holds God responsible for the existence of many of its 
facts. Nothing can claim his sanction unless that 
sanction is plainly recorded. 

Even if there was some force in Noah's curse, it was 
fulfilled in the case of the Canaanites. But not stop- 
ping to urge that argument, let me ask who made the 
South the executors of Noah, to carry out his curse ? 
"When did they take out letters testamentary on Noah's 
estate ? Canaan was to be a servant of servants. Are 
the slaveholders servants ? Even did I admit (which I 
do not) that Noah's curse had some force in enslaving 
somebody to the Jews, what a jump of logic to conclude 
thence that Southern men have a right to enslave the 
negroes ! 

And now I come to the case of Abraham. We are 
told that Abraham was a slaveholder. Gentlemen, I 
meet that declaration with a plump denial ; and I shall 
satisfy you in a moment that I do so on the best ground 
of argument. 

In the first place, Abraham's head servant was his 
lieutenant in war, who, as the leader of 118 armed 
men, went forth on a foray against the surrounding 
nations. When gentlemen will arm their slaves, and 
lead them out into an unpopulous country, and bring 
them back again safely, none rebelling, though there 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 121 

be 118 slaves to one white man wlio is in command — 
then they may begin to argue some analogy between 
their system and the Abrahamic. 

Again, I prove to you that Abraham's servants were 
not slaves, from the fact that Abraham's head servant 
was declared by Abraham to be his heir — the natural 
and lawful heir of his whole property. The slave laws 
of the South affirm that a slave can own nothing, hold 
nothing ; that he cannot be the party to a contract, or 
have any tenure of property. 

Here was a man who did own and did hold property 
— who was heir-in-law of Abraham, the richest man 
of his day ; yet we are asked to believe that the system 
of servitude then prevailing is analogous to the system 
of slavery now existing in the South, which declares a 
slave to be goods and chatties personal, to all intents, 
purposes, and constructions whatsoever — unable to 
own anything, hold anything, or be a party to a con- 
tract. Furnish arms to your slaves at the South ; put 
property in their hands ; give them some position that 
was occupied by Abraham's feudal retainers (if I may 
borrow the language of the middle ages) : and you 
will see how long you will be able to hold them as 
slaves. Fulfil one out of six of the conditions of that 
Abrahamic system of servitude, and you break down 
a dyke, whose removal would cause the dark waters of 
slavery at the South to rush out with such a flood that 
no man could stem its tide. 

Again : Abraham's head servant went with his son 

to get a wife. Abraham trusted him to go on a long 

journey, upon a mission that was dearest to his own 

heart. Travelling day after day, with a retinue of 

11 



122 NEGATIVE, II. 

camels and companies of men and women, through a 
"wild country, into which he could readily have fled — 
I ask you, if he had been a slave — subject to the lash 
— goods and chattels personal — who does not believe 
that he would have run away ? The truth is, that 
Abraham was a prince, and his followers and military 
retainers, who tilled his land, and attended his flocks, 
were, in the language of the East, called his servants. 
This was the relation between him and them, and it 
did not at all involve the chattel principle which is the 
soul of American slavery. 

The word ''servant" in the Old Testament no more 
necessarily means " slave" than it does in the language 
of New England or the city of Philadelphia. It is a 
common term ; and I off'er as my authority one of 
Philadelphia's noblest sons, who, having carefully given 
his vast learning to the investigation of this question, 
has announced his conclusion that the word " servant," 
as applied to persons in the Bible, determines nothing 
with reference to the tenure by which they were held, 
and would apply to a New England servant as well as 
to any other. I speak of the testimony of Albert 
Barnes, who states his conclusion in these words : 

" From this examination of the terms used to denote 
servitude among the Hebrews, it follows that nothing can be 
inferred from the mere use of the word in regard to the kind 
of servitude which existed in the days of the patriarchs.'^ — 
Barnes on Slaver)/. 

Again, Mr. Barnes says : 

'' The Hebrew words, ehedh, ahodlid, and ahuddd, rendered 
commonly servant^ service, and servants, (Job i. 3,) are 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 123 

derived from Cihadh, meaninp^ to Jahor, to work, to do loorJc. 
It occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures some hundreds of times 
in various forms of the word, and is never rendered slaves^ 
but commonly servants, and serve. 

But I have another question to ask : Did everything 
done by the j^atriarchs receive the approbation of God ? 
Not at all ; and the fact that a system of servitude 
obtained among the patriarchs cannot prove that it 
had the Divine approbation, unless you can show that 
it is sustained and sanctioned by the letter of the 
Bible. The mere fact of its existence proves nothing ; 
for all these patriarchs were guilty of wrong-doino-s. 
Jacob filched from his brother Esau his birthright by 
a trick ; Abraham denied his own wife, and, by the 
denial, subjected her to the danger of prostitution ; and 
even Noah, as we have already seen, got drunk. The 
Bible states these facts without comment, just as it 
states the fact that these patriarchs held servants; 
and by the bare statement of the fact, it sanctions one 
as much as the other. 

In the next place, I deny any analogy between this 
system of servitude and American slavery ; because, 
in the whole Jewish economy, no man ever sold a 
servant. I defy my opponent to find an instance, from 
the beginning to the end of the Bible, where a Jew is 
ever said to have sold a servant after he came into his 
possession. Therefore, those servants were not subject 
to the laws of property, as are the slaves of the South 
at this day. Had they been ^' goods and chattels 
personal," we should have had some record of their 
sale by their master. But no such record can be found ; 
and the inference is irresistible that they were not 



124 NEGATIVE, II. 

property. Again, you will remember that passage of 
the Bible which reads : 

" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which 
is escaped from his master unto thee/' 

Thus we see an "underground railroad" had come 
to the surface all over Judea. Every servant that felt 
oppressed had the Divine sanction to flee anywhere he 
pleased, and, by the prohibition of God, no man should 
send him back to his master, but all were commanded 
to allow him to remain unmolested. Proclaim that law 
to the bondmen who tremble at the crack of your whip ; 
let the declaration go forth as the law of the South 
that no fugitive act exists, that every slave who can 
make good his escape shall be free ; and in a fortnight, 
the population across the lakes in Canada will receive 
such an accession, and the South become so nearly de- 
populated, that gentlemen who now live by squeezing 
out of the poor oppressed negroes the coats they wear, 
and the dinners they eat, and the jewelery they flourish 
in Northern cities, will be compelled to work for a 
living. 

But whatever may have been the system of servitude 
that obtained among the Jews, (and I still insist that 
it was as far removed from the chattel-principle, the 
dark feature of American slavery, as is the relation be- 
tween a New England servant-girl and her mistress) — 
whatever may have been the system that obtained, 
every forty-nine years it was abolished by the jubilee. 
Every forty-nine years, liberty was "proclaimed 
throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof." 

Every forty-nine years, one grand, universal, aboli^ 



BY ABRAxAI PRYNE. 125 

tion jubilee swept over tlie whole land of Judea. The 
gentleman on the other side tells us that his system in 
the South is modelled after the Mosaic. Is it not time, 
after two hundred years of slavery, to have four jubi- 
lees at once. Stick to the letter of the Bible on this 
point if you will ; make your system conform in this 
particular to that which obtained in Judea, and slavery 
will be swept down, and pass away as the fog before a 
summer's morning. 

I do not stop to-night to enter largely into the argu- 
ment with reference to the teachings of the New Testa- 
ment; nor have, thus far, more than glanced at the 
argument of the Old Testament. But I must be 
allowed to say that all the precepts of the New Testa- 
ment are against slavery ; and American slavery is so 
terribly inimical to the whole Bible, that the South is 
thrown into an agony of fear the moment a half dozen 
poor, ragged slaves gather in the basement of some 
church, in order to be taught the language of the New 
Testament. Sir, if the Bible so strongly sanctions 
slavery, why do you not, like sensible men, teach it to 
your slaves ? Why not teach every slave to read it, 
that he may have the full benefit of feeling that he is 
under the influence of a Divine God-appointed system ? 
" Search the Scriptures ?" is the command of God ; but 
slavery says to the slaves, " If you dare attempt to look 
into the Scriptures — if you gather together to gain 
Scriptural instruction — we will send our creatures to 
disperse you under the crack of the lash. You shall 
not be permitted to learn to read the Bible." 

Why, if slavery and the Bible are so entirely in affin- 
ity, if each so admirably supports the other, how foolish 
11* 



126 NEGATIYEj II. 

are these gentlemen of the South that they do not teach 
every slave to read the Scriptures ! God reveals his 
will to man in tlie Bible. Slavery says to four millions 
of her boasted Christians of the South, " If you learn 
to read that Bible, I will score your backs with the 
lash until the skin shall peel off," and yet attempts to 
prove that that same Bible which God revealed for all 
men sanctions that oppression which prevents them from 
reading it. 

I notice to-night only a few of the passages which 
the gentleman has quoted in his speech. I would, at 
this point, merely say, in a general way, that just in 
proportion as you make an impression that slavery is 
sustained by the Bible, you bring the Bible into scorn 
and contempt. I say that the slave who believes that 
the Bible supports slavery, ought to hate it. I say 
that, if the slave believes that the religion taught him at 
the South makes him a slave, he ought to trample it 
under his feet. Such enlightenment, such philosophy, 
such Christianity, are so far from being a blessing to 
him, that the heaviest curse the dark spirit of slavery 
has ever inflicted upon the soul of the slave, is the 
religion of the South under which she professes to 
hold him in bonds. 

My opponent said, in his speech of last night : 

^^When Christ was doomed by a cruel Roman law to its 
most ignominious condemnation, he did not so much as 
resist it/' 

What would he have us infer — that, therefore, the 
cruel Roman law which hung him upon the cross was 
right ? Is that the inference ? Does he intend to 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 127 

argue that, Lecause I go for the repeal of these cruel 
laws against the slave, I am violating the example of 
Christ ? Does it follow that the slaveholders' laws of 
the South are right, because Christ did not resist laws 
equally tyrannous? By no means. For Christ did 
not resist his own crucifixion ; and if nothing but what 
Christ resisted is wrong, then Christ's crucifixion was 
not Avrong ! 

The gentleman on the other side tells us that Jesus 
never denounced slavery. Has he never read the 
words: ''Undo the heavy burdens?" A crushing 
burden is laid on the back of the poor slave at birth, 
which he carries all the days of his life, until he sinks 
under it into his grave. Our Revolutionary fathers 
rebelled against a burden which, compared with sla- 
very, is as a man's little finger to his loins ; and if 
their rebellion was for a moment justifiable, then the 
slave would be doubly justified in asserting his freedom 
with arms in his hands. In the name of God and 
humanity, what is heavier than the burden of slavery? 
Has he never read the words: "Break every yoke, and 
let the oppressed go free?" When every yoke shall 
be broken, I take it, the horrid yoke of American sla- 
very will be broken. I call upon those gentlemen who 
hold this theory, to convince me that they believe the 
Bible, by carrying out this palpable and incontrovert- 
ible passage, by setting forth to "break every yoke 
and let the oppressed go free." 

Again: the prophet Isaiah, in describing the pur- 
pose of Christ's mission to the world, uses this beauti- 
ful language : 



128 NEGATIVE, II. 

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the 
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the 
meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the pri- 
son to tliem that are bound : To proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; 
to comfort all that mourn." 

Thus is Christ revealed as a universal emancipator. 
Shall I be told again that Christ has never said a word 
against slavery ? If I should be, you will agree with 
me that I am not bound to believe it. 

Has he never read: "All things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto 
them?" And would he that men should doom him to 
a life of bondage; that they should sell his wife on 
the auction-block, and his daughters to a slave-trader ? 
Would he have the light of knowledge shut out from 
his soul, and the Bible denied to his children ? Why, 
then, do this to others, and still claim to be a servant, 
nay, a minister, of Christ? 

My friend has told us, both last night and to-night, 
that Abolitionists themselves have complained of the 
colored people ; and he mentions Gerritt Smith as one 
who has done so. He has ; but there is something of 
which he is at this very time complaining more loudly, 
making his own deep-toned voice reverberate over the 
hills of New York State. He is proclaiming the 
wickedness of the South, which, while it has for ages 
crushed the slave under its heel, is now astonished that 
he does not rise into the dignity of an intellectual man 
at one leap. He knows, as we all do, that the vices 
of the slave have been learned on the plantation, and 
that no people can be expected to rise in a moment 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 129 

from the effects of such a horrid education. The 
South denies all means of intellectual culture to the 
slave ; flogs him for learning to read ; abuses him for 
every struggling effort of his mind to gain culture; 
and then, after having put out the light of intellect 
from his soul, is astonished that he is intellectually 
weak, and gives such weakness as the cowardly reason 
for continuing to abuse him. 

But if gentlemen think that the fugitive slaves of 
this country are men lacking in intellect, I can only 
say, that had my opponent accepted the offer of Fre- 
derick Douglass to meet him in this debate, he would 
have gone back to Knoxville, Tennessee, with his 
notions of the want of intellect of the African all 
upset. 

And you will excuse me for saying, in this connec- 
tion, that had he met another colored man whom I can 
mention — darker than Frederick Douglass, who is a 
mulatto — a real African of the olden type, six feet 
two inches in his shoes, and weighing over two hun- 
dred pounds, he would have thought himself in a Chi- 
nese museum of wit, sarcasm, and logic, where pyro- 
technics were flashing around him from the brain of 
Samuel R. Ward. 

I only regret that I have not his power of argument, 
of diction, and of rhetoric, with which to meet my 
friend to-night. 

In regard to Gerritt Smith's complaining of the 
colored people, has he not shown his genuine kindness 
of heart towards them, his love for them, by telling 
them their faults ; while he is, in his efforts to assist 
them, distributing among them, with princely liberal- 



130 NEGATIVE, II. 

itj, his own fortune. And the best thing to be said 
yet of Gerritt Smith's good deeds in that direction, is, 
that he is to-day on the stump in my own glorious 
Empire State as a candidate for Governor, under the 
pledge that if he should be elected, and an effort 
should be made to take a fugitive slave from the State 
of New York, he will call out the whole military force 
of the State to resist it. Such lukewarm friends of 
the African as that, may God multiply ! And, gentle- 
men, let me say that, when this debate shall have been 
concluded, I shall, with pleasure, hasten home to my 
native State, to take the stump for Mr. Smith. 

And now let me refer to another point in the argu- 
ment of my opponent. We have had brought to our 
notice the case of Paul's apprehension of Onesimus ; 
and it has been urged that Onesimus was a fugitive 
slave, and Paul a slave-catcher. Let us see what was 
the language which Paul used in writing to Philemon: 

" Receive him not now as a servant/' 

Then Paul did not send him back as a servant, but 
as a freeman. 

" Receive him not as a servant, but above a servant, a 
brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto 
thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord ? If thou count me, 
therefore, a partner, receive him as m?/sel/." 

I suppose my friend will not contend that Paul 
wished Philemon to receive Mm with the cat-o'-nine- 
tails. I suppose that he will not agree that Paul 
wished Philemon to place him in the stocks, and put 
him on bread and water, and baste his back, and 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 131 

anoint It with brine and pepper. He will not argue 
that this is what Paul meant by his injunction that 
Onesimus should be received as a brother — "not now 
a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved." 
So it seems Paul was an emancipationist ; that he set 
Onesimus free, and sent him back, with the apostolic 
command to his master that he should let him remain 
free. This is your boasted argument from Paul's let- 
ter to Philemon. Practice Paul's teaching here, and 
I am content. I would be willing to send all the fugi- 
tives in Canada back in the same way Paul sent back 
Onesimus, with an order for free papers and a brother's 
inheritance in the estate, provided you would guarantee 
that the slaveholders would receive them, "not as ser- 
vants, but as brothers beloved." 

I would refer, also, to the case of Ziba, the servant 
of Saul. He, we are told, had twenty servants him- 
self. He therefore held property, and could not be a 
slave ; for, according to the slave law of the South, no 
slave can hold property. He was the servant of Saul 
in the sense in which all the retainers of captains are 
called their servants. They were mere feudal military 
retainers. In this sense the word "servant" is applied 
to them; and that is all the force that it has in all 
these cases. 

Paul is quoted again as saying 

"Art thou called being a servant ? care not for it : but if 
thou mayest be made free, use it rather." 

That is to say. If you are a slave and the cars of 
the underground railroad come along, jump on and get 
your freedom if you can. If you are a servant, bear it 



132 NEGATIVE, II. 

patiently while you must, but the moment an oppor- 
tunity occurs for you to escape, make the best of it, 
and get away as soon as you can. 

Of course Paul advised servants to be obedient and 
get along as smoothly as they could while compelled to 
remain in that position. I would give the same advice, 
would say show no impatience, no restlessness, let 
your master think you are passive and content, while 
your condition is inevitable, but " If thou mayest be 
free use it rather," and when the train arrives on the 
underground railroad take a through ticket. 

We are referred to passages exhorting the slaves to 
patience and forbearance ; and in regard to these, you 
will mark this, that they all condole with him as suffer- 
ing a very hard lot, telling him to bear it in the name 
of God and Christ. They tell him that to bear buffet- 
ing is creditable to him. But they all plead that he is 
not in his right condition, and urge him to bear it until 
he shall have an opportunity to get away. Such passa- 
ges as these the pro-slavery side of the argument may 
make the most of. 

The argument is urged that as Jesus did not de- 
nounce slavery by name, it follows that he did not re- 
gard it as a crime. This argument is based upon the 
assumption that everything that Christ did not de- 
nounce in set terms is innocent. It will take but a 
moment to show the glaring fallacy of this proposition. 
But one sermon of Jesus has come down to us, and the 
report of that is by no means full. That sermon was 
addressed to non-slave-holding Jews, and not especially 
to slave-holding Romans, and of course that single ser- 
mon could not go minutely into the various questions 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 133 

of civil rights, social conditions, and political economy, 
which have since agitated the world. But he did lay 
down broad and deep, great first principles, which 
when carried out would overturn every form of oppres- 
sion. He did not denounce the cruelties and brutali- 
ties of the gladiatorial shows of the Roman Amphithe- 
ater, by name, nor did he directly discuss the wicked- 
ness of the Roman government in detail, but does it 
therefore follow that he sanctioned all these? His 
short ministry of only three years, shut him up to the 
necessity of dealing in first principles, leaving the 
future to develop and apply them to all phases of the 
after life of man, and these first principles are at all 
points at enmity with American slavery. 

Here are a few passages from the Bible which show 
its teachings on human rights : 

" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself 

^'Let the oppressed go free." 

'' Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the irihahit- 
ants thereof.'' 

" Thou shalt not respect the persons of the poor nor honor 
the persons of the mighty, but iu righteousness shalt thou 
judge thy neighbor," 

" Envy not thou the oppressor, and choose none of his 
ways. 

'' Do justice to the afflicted and needy, rid them out of the 
hands of the wicked." 

'^Execute judgment and justice; take away your exaltations 
from my people saith the Lord." 

^'He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker.'' 
^'I will be a swift witness against the adulterer, and 
against false swearers, and against those that oppress the 
hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and 
that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me 
eaith the Lord of Hosts. ' 

12 



134 NEGATIVE, II. 

'^He tliat stealetti a mat], and selleth him, or if lie be 
found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death/^ 

'' Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also 
shall cry, but shall not be heard/' 

''Therefore thus saith the Lord; ye have not hearkened 
unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, 
and every man to his neighbor : behold, I proclaim a liberty 
for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and 
to the famine ; and I will make you to be removed into all 
the kingdoms of the earth." 

" Call no man master, neither be ye called masters/' 

" All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you do ye even so to them/' 

"Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly 
love; in honor preferring one another/' 

" Do good to all men, as ye have opportunity/' 

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of 
bondage/' 

" If thou mayest be made free, use it rather/' 

" The laborer is worthy of his hire/' 

" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty/' 

The Baltimore Sun while criticising the work of 
some clerical flunky who published a Bible defence of 
slavery a few years ago, excoriates him as follows : 

" Bible defence of slavery ! There is no such thing as a 
Bible defence of slavery at the present day. Slavery in the 
United States is a social institution, originating in the con- 
venience and cupidity of our ancestors, existing by State 
laws, and recognized to a certain extent — for the recovery 
of slave property — by the Constitution. And nobody would 
pretend that, if it were inexpedient and unprofitable for any 
man or any State to continue to hold slaves, they would be 
bound to do so on the ground of a " Bible defence" of it. 
Slavery is recorded in the Bible, and approved, with many 
desradino; characteristics. War is recorded in the Bible, 
and approved, under what seems to us the extreme of cruelty. 
But are slavery and war to endure for ever because we find 
them in the Bible ? or are they to cease at once and for ever 
because the Bible inculcates peace and brotherhood ?" 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 135 

My opponent, as you remember, last night denounced 
the slave trade in language such as I could not com- 
mand myself. To-night he tells us the slave trade is 
sanctioned by God and the Bible. Which end of his 
argument shall I take — the argument of last night or 
the argument of to-night ? But I have driven him, as 
I knew I should, to plant his feet on the slave-trade as 
the only means of logically supporting slavery itself. 
He has amended his logic, though his premises are false. 

We have been told again to-night that all the oriental 
nations were slave-holding nations. Let us for one 
moment dig up from the past their history, and see 
how God himself shows his sanction or disapprobation 
of slavery. Egypt held slaves ; for 430 years the Jews 
were slaves in Egypt. But escaping, they all took the 
underground railroad which led through the Bed Sea. 
Their oppressors followed on a grand national slave 
hunt, but God himself being against them, the waves 
of the sea swallowed them up. Pharaoh and his entire 
host were swept away by the besom of destruction in 
the attempt to get back their fugitive slaves. God 
sanctions slavery, does he ? and yet he causes the sea 
to swallow up an army of hundreds of thousands who 
are attempting to regain possession of their fugitive 
slaves ! 

Again : throughout the history of the Jews, God is 
continually pointing back to the days of Egyptian 
slavery, to warn the Jews against oppression, saying 
to them in effect, " Do not forget that you were slaves 
in Egypt ; do not forget the wrongs under which you 
suffered ; do not forget the horrors of that system, and 
do not inflict them upon others." And if we wish to 



136 NEGATIVE, II. 

follow the history of Egypt and see what effect slavery 
had in perpetuating her existence and her glory, let the 
dust that is gathered more than sixty feet deep at the 
foot of the Pyramids since art and glory left the land 
of Egypt tell us what effect such institutions have had 
upon her existence and her glory. The desolations of 
Egypt to-day proclaim aloud to the world God's stand- 
ing disapprohation of the cruelty of Egyptian oppression. 
Take the case of Bahylon, if you please. The Bible 
declares that Babylon was destroyed for her oppression, 
because she dealt in slaves and the souls of men. 
Again : all men at all conversant with her history know 
that Rome was destroyed because of the very same 
corruptions which are now eating in upon the vitality 
of our own nation. Rome was ultimately ruined by 
the inroads of her system of slavery. 

Thus, any man familiar with the history of nations 
sees at a glance that the grand leveller of all national 
greatness and glory has been the corruptions engendered 
by oppression among nations holding slaves. 

With reference to the cruelty practised upon South- 
ern plantations, I have said nothing. I do not come 
here to ask that slavery shall be abolished because the 
masters of the South whip their slaves cruelly — because 
they dress them in such a manner as not to protect 
them from the cold — because they hunt them with 
blood-hounds — or because of any of the horrid inflic- 
tions upon their persons which characterize the entire 
field of Southern society. I come to ask that slavery 
shall be abolished, because the very condition itself, in 
its best and happiest form, is such an outrage against 
God and humanity that it ought not to exist on earth. 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 137 

Dress your slave in silks, feed him upon the choicest 
viands of the land, wait upon him j'ourself at your own 
table, give him all the luxuries with which you can 
surround him, yet still insist that he shall be your 
slave, and I will still demand his freedom with a voice 
as earnest as though he were suffering from the most 
terrible inflictions of cruelty. "While I know that 
slavery is cruel — while I feel the deepest indignation 
at the wrong and outrage which it heaps upon the 
slave, — yet apart from all this, the condition of slavery 
is in itself the deepest and most damning wrong, and 
the mere incidents are not to be brought in question 
in an argument of this sort. 

My opponent has given us a long extract from some 
man's plantation rules, wherein he tells his overseers 
that they must listen to the complaints of the slave. 
Would my friend regard it as a peculiar kindness that 
some man should take him and make him a slave, and 
then, out of regard for him, should command somebody 
to listen to his complaints ? 

Perhaps it will be replied that slavery should not lay 
its hand upon the white man. The color of the cuticle, 
I take it, does not measure the worth of humanity ; and 
as you and I would not ask for some man to complain 
to, but would demand before God and the law, the right 
to protect our own rights, and shield ourselves under 
the government, so I ask the same for the slave. 

These plantation rules provide that the slave's bed- 
ding shall be examined. The bed that Frederick 
Douglass had, when in slavery, would not, according 
to his description, have taken a very long examination. 
It was an old bag, into which he used to crawl head 
12* 



138 NEGATIVE, II. 

foremost. That was his bed for the winter — all that 
he had. The bedding to be examined would, I appre- 
hend, generally be found to be the soft side of a plank, 
or the hard ground. Though some gentlemen may 
provide better for their slaves, jet I know that on the 
sugar and cotton plantations this is the general charac- 
ter of the bedding. 

Again : it is affirmed that American slavery ought 
to be perpetuated because it improves the morals of the 
slave. The slaves, it is said, become members of 
Southern churches, and are made religious men. Let 
me say that the fact that the slave is not morally 
beneath the heathen does not show that slavery im- 
proves his morals ; it only shows that he has native 
moral instincts sufficient to enable him, even in spite of 
slavery/, to get from the glimmering light of surrounding 
civilization some ideas of morals beyond those of the 
heathen. 

Improve a man's morals by whipping him for reading 
the Bible ? Improve a man's morals by sending police- 
men to break up his sabbath-schools ? Improve a man's 
morals by chaining him to a cart while his master has 
gone to the communion-table ? Improve a man's morals 
and regard for the Bible by telling him that the Bible 
sanctions his being whipped and driven all his life in 
the cotton-field without pay ? Gentlemen, this mode 
of improving morals certainly obtains nowhere but in 
the South ; and I take it that Southern morals may 
yet be improved a long way before the Millenium will 
dawn. 

We have it affirmed that it is only by slavery that 
the character of the slave can be elevated. Yet we are 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 139 

told that, after two hundred years of slavery, he is so 
immoral and thriftless that he cannot take care of 
himself. I ask that we may determine this question 
by determining what would be the result of two hun- 
dred years of freedom. If, at the close of that period, 
we shall have failed to elevate his character, then we 
will be converted to the doctrine that slavery is the 
condition most conducive to his moral improvement ; 
and the missionary work of my friend may then go on 
at the North. 

We have been told that three-fourths of the slaves 
in Tennessee would refuse their liberty if offered to 
them. Oh ! I would like to see the experiment tried ! 
When the Legislature of Tennessee shall have offered 
to them their liberty, and they shall have refused, then, 
and not till then, can this statement be received. If 
the slave owners of the South are as sure that their 
slaves would refuse the boon of liberty, why do they 
meet with such terrible malignity all Abolitionists who 
may tell their slaves that there is a chance for freedom ? 

Let me now, in closing these remarks, announce that 
I shall to-morrow night consider the question of slavery 
in its relation to commerce, to art, to the advance of 
intelligence, to the development of national greatness ; 
and I hope to show that slavery is the great incubus 
resting upon the material growth and progress of our 
country. I hope to prove that not only the welfare 
of the slave, but the interests of the white man, the 
prosperity of the whole nation, as well as the command 
of God, the dictates of humanity and the claims of 
justice, demand that American slavery shall be abol- 
ished. 



STATEMENT 

Read to the audience, Thursday, Sept. Wi, 1858. 



Rev. Mr. Pryne and myself stipulated by letter, 
that in this discussion I was to lead — that I was at no 
time to exceed one hour and thirty minutes in the de- 
livery of a speech. We further stipulated that our 
friends present, meaning those adhering to our views, 
should not interrupt either him or myself. I have not 
yet occupied one hour and thirty minutes in either ad- 
dress delivered, nor will I do so this evening ; but last 
evening I was interrupted with repeated cries of " time 
expired," and not even allowed time to conclude my 
entire address. This annoyance came from ruffians 
and insolent free negroes. 

I ask no favors — no quarters — no sympathy from 

Abolitionists — and I expect none ; but I demand /ws^/c^, 

and a compliance with our written contract, which has 

been read before this audience. The South has been 

well represented in this Hall, the two evenings past, 

and she is well represented here this evening, although 

three or four to one, of the entire audience, are against 

us in their feelings and sentiments ; but the friends of 
(140) 



STATEMENT BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 141 

the South have not interrupted Mr. Pryne, and will 
not do so, whether he shall close within the limits of 
our agreement, or go beyond them. Southern men, 
unlike Abolitionists, are men of good breeding ! 

If persons — I will not s^j gentlemen, friendly to the 
cause of Abolition — are sick of this discussion, and of 
the facts and figures I am laying before them, and wish 
to break it up, let them say so, through their reverend 
spokesman, and we will discontinue it quietly, and dis- 
perse as becomes gentlemen. Otherwise, we will con- 
tinue it, and adhere to the written agreement between 
the speakers. 

Respectfully, &c., 

W. G. Brownlow. 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 
Affirmative, III. — By W. G. Brownlow. 

Such points in tlie last rejoinder of Mr. Pryne, as 
I may deem important to notice, I will pay my re- 
spects to before I take my seat. 

The New York Daily TimeSj for the 8th of March, 
gives to the world some interesting statistics, drawn 
from the Annual Report of the Penitentiary of Louisi- 
ana. These statistics, the Anti-Slavery editor of that 
widely-circulated Journal makes a text for a column 
of bitter and sweeping denunciations, and false and in- 
famous allegations against the morality, and social con- 
dition of the Southern States generally. I am a con- 
stant reader of the newspapers and magazines, both 
North and South, and of the controversies growing out 
of the Slavery question ; and I must be allowed to say, 
that I have rarely read any production more un- 
sparingly false and abusive, than that article. It con- 
cedes that the constitutions and laws of the Southern 
States, generally, " are framed in a spirit of enlight- 
enment and humanity," such as have the appearance 
of coming from " a sober and God-fearing people," but 
then it goes on to describe the people that framed these 
constitutions, and enacted these laws ; and what is 
more wicked and infamous than all, it gives the sub- 
jects upon whom these laws are executed, convicts in 
State Prisons, as apt illustrations of Southern society 

(142) 



BY W . G . B R W N L O W . 143 

generaUy ! It speaks of the better classes of society 
in the South, as a set of men under the sway of brutal 
and tiger-like passions, ferociously killing, shooting, 
stabbing, wounding, and mutilating each other, with- 
out any plausible pretext, and without feeling any 
responsibility to either God or man ! The editor even 
says that these offences are of daily occurrence, and 
that they take place in all the States, and show the 
leading traits of character among Southern m.en ! I 
will give the precise words of the Times on this point, 
in its sweeping charges against the South. It says of 
our homicides and fights, — " daily homicides, mutila- 
tions and fights, which take place in all imrts of the 
country," and speaks of " the unbridled and implacable 
ferocity displayed by every white man who happens to 
get into a dispute with his neighbor." 

What an indiscriminate attack upon the Southern 
people ! And how common these attacks are at the 
North ! How gross and palpable their calumny ! And 
the occasion for this tirade, the Times has drawn from 
the criminal statistics of Louisiana, which it says grows 
out of the "little regard in the South for personal 
liberty;" meaning that the Southern people hold Afri- 
can slaves in bondage ! 

I was in New Orleans more than once, during the 
past spring and winter, — I saw and conversed with dif 
ferent members of the Louisiana Legislature, which ad- 
journed while I was last in that city. I then and 
there procured the official records of the Louisiana peni- 
tentiary, and they do not justify the statements of 
the Times. If these records prove anything, they es- 
tablish the criminal degradation of Northern society, 



144 

and the superiority of Southerners in the scale of civi- 
lization. 

True, the records show that a large proportion of 
the offences for which men have been sent to the 
penitentiary in Louisiana, are the class of crimes the 
Times has specified, to wit: murders, manslaughter, 
poisonings, assaults with intent to kill, house-burning, 
forgeries and thefts; — but these are not "the special 
crimes of the South," nor are they the "monster evils" 
of Louisiana, as falsely alleged. 

Now, that these crimes have been committed in 
Louisiana, I admit, and that the persons thus offending 
have been sentenced to the penitentiary by Louisiana 
jurors and judges, under the wholesome operation of 
Louisiana laws, is equally true. But wlw committed 
them? And where did these offenders come from? 
They were not natives, or persons trained up in the 
South. An analysis of the penitentary records will 
show that these criminals, paraded before the world, 
by this Anti-Slavery New York editor, as illustrative 
of Southern morals, are natives of foreign lands, and 
of the Abolition States of this Union. The proportion 
of them from all the Southern States is very small ; an 
essential item, which the editor seems altogether to 
have overlooked. The largest number consists of fo- 
reigners, of various nations ; the next largest that of 
natives of the Northern and North- Western States — 
of whom, Brother Pryne, your own beloved New 
York furnishes the greatest number of any one State, 
North or South ! 

The number of convicts in the penitentiary of Lou- 
isiana, is 244, white men and women. The authorities 



BY W . G . B R AV N L W . 145 

of the State had the census of the birth-place of every 
convict taken, during the past year, with the fol]o-\ving 
result, which I beg leave to repeat, that the Abolition- 
ists who hear me may see where the criminals arc 
reared up and educated : 

''Of the 109 who were American born, 59 were natives of 
Free States, and 46 of Slave States, so that the Free States 
had a large majority of the model criminals. 

" Of the whole number of convicts, less tlian oyie-ffth were 
natives of Southern States. Four out of every five were 
born, and most of them trained up, under other influences. 

" Of the whole number of 244, only nine were natives of 
Louisiana, about four per cent, of the whole mass — while 
New York alone — we ask the Times to note this interesting 
piece of information — New York alone contributed 22, or 
about 9 per cent, of the whole criminal body — the selected 
examples of the characteristic crimes of the South. 

" The following is a more detailed list of the nativities of 
these criminals : 

^^ Northern States. — New York, 22; Pennsylvania, 9; Ohio, 
9 ; Illinois, 5 ; Massachusetts, 3 ; Connecticut, 3 ; Indiana, 
8 ', New Jersey, 2 ; New Hampshire, 1 ; Rhode Island, 1 ) 
Maine, 1—59. 

" Southeini States. — Louisiana, 9 ; Virginia, 6 ; Missouri, 
6 ; Maryland, 5 ; North Carolina, 3 ; South Carolina, 3 ; Geor- 
gia, 3 ; Alabama, 3 ; Mississippi, 3 ; Kentucky, 2 ; Arkansas, 
1 ; District of Columbia, 2 — 46.'' 

Now, the great Empire State, from which my worthy 
competitor hails, and which cast her Presidential vote 
for '^ Fremont and Dayton " — I intend no disrespect to 
the gentleman — New York furnishes tivo convicts to 
the penitentiary of the far distant State of Louisiana, 
for every one who is a native of the State ; while Penn- 
sylvania and Ohio, two anti-slavery States, furnish 
each a number equal to the Louisiana contribution. 
Pious, puritanical Massachusetts, of the extreme North, 
13 



146 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

has as many representatives in the Louisiana peniten- 
tiary, as the adjoining State of Mississippi, and three 
for every one furnished by the adjoining State of Ar- 
kansas, Avhere stabbing men with "Arkansas tooth- 
picks " is so common ! Connecticut, educated, consci- 
entious, and pious Connecticut — famous for her love of 
freedom, wooden-clocks, zvooden-Jiams, wooden-nutmegs, 
wooden-shad, and cow-heel flints, furnishes as many as 
Georgia, whose citizens are an unmitigated tribe of 
slave-drivers ! 

Of the 347 convicts, of all classes, who now crowd 
the cells of the Louisiana State Prison, 145 are from 
the parishes of Orleans and Jefferson, contiguous 
parishes on the river, where the foreign and Free- 
State immigrants congregate. The river parishes, at 
all times open to the incursions of rogues from abroad, 
as high up as the Mississippi and Arkansas lines, con- 
tributed 50, showing that the interior of the State, 
remote from the highways, furnished only 62 of all 
classes. Of these only nine are natives of Louisiana ; 
not even a convict for each parish ; w^hile there are 
twelve interior parishes from which there is not a single 
convict, native or imported, immigrant or rover ! 

Northern papers and politicians, as well as clergy- 
men, make the crimes that are committed at the South 
a matter of fault-finding with the "the peculiar insti- 
tution," and charge these evils to the demoralizing 
effects of negro slavery. Northern men are so accus- 
tomed to look abroad for news, and are so familiar 
with crime at their own doors, that the statistical 
reports of crime in the South make up interesting 
items of news, and afford occasions for elaborate criti- 



BY W. (}. BROWN LOW. 147 

cisms on Southern society. Facts, however, arc de- 
cidedly against their theories, and show the comparative 
tone of bad morals in the North to be much more and 
worse than in the South. Whoever will make a com- 
parison of the statistics of crimes, in the non-slave- 
holding States, with States in the South, will find that 
there is a large balance for good in favor of the South. 

To illustrate, briefly, this point, Louisiana has nearly 
double the population of Connecticut, yet, by the 
census of 1850, as many as 545 natives of the United 
States were convicted of crime in Connecticut, aixaiust 
197 in Louisiana ! 

Virginia has one-third more population than Massa- 
chusetts, yet, by the same census, there were in the 
penitentiary of Massachusetts 270 natives of the United 
States, and all of New England except a few free 
negroes, against 160 in Virginia, half of whom were 
from Free States ! 

The State of Massachusetts last year had 24,905 
paupers, who were sujjported by a direct tax, or relieved 
by public charity, at the enormous expense of $ 521,254 ! 
The number of indigent children in Massachusetts, 
last year, was 1188, supported at the public charge. 

But I am not done with the penitentiary statistics 
of the country. Anti-Slavery men have made this 
issue, and I intend to make them sick of the details. 
And now for the supply of criminals in the peniten- 
tiary of Virginia. On the 12th of last March, the 
Virginia State Prison contained more prisoners than 
ever before inhabited its gloomy cells. The cells were 
closely filled, there being from two to four in each, 
and still they were coming ! 



148 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

The number of white persons, male and 

female, was 240 

Free Negroes 97 

Slaves to be transported 4 



Total number of convicts 341 

A gentleman writing to me in April, in answer to 
my inquiries, and from the city of Richmond, said : 

^' There are only about one-third of our convicts natives 
of Virginia; the rest are foreigners and natives of other 
States. According to population, New York is equally repre- 
sented with Virginia V 

The Report of the President and Directors of the Mary- 
land penitentiary, for January, 1858, shows that there 
were 415 prisoners ; natives of the United States, 332 ; 
white natives of Maryland, 100. The other white natives 
hail from Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, 
Delaw^are, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the District 
of Columbia. Pennsylvania has the largest representa- 
tion of any Free State, namely, TWENTY-ONE. 

The Report of the Officers of the Mississippi peni- 
tentiary, for 185T, shows that 105 convicts were in the 
cells. Of these, sixteen were natives of Mississippi, 
and seventeen were from the States of Pennsylvania, 
New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin ; 
the North being able to out-poll Mississippi one vote in 
her own penitentiary ! 

The " Report of the State Prison Inspectors" of 
Alabama, for 1857, shows that there were 219 prisoners 
confined, and thirty-one of these were natives of Ala- 
bama. The same number hail from New York, Maine, 



BY W . a . B R () W N L O W . 149 

Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massacliusetts, 
Ohio, New Jersey, and Rhode Island ; New York having 
a delegation of tliirteen ! Thus Alabama and the Free 
States are tied in her own penitentiary ! 

Reverse this picture — go into your Northern peni- 
tentiaries, and while you have double the number of 
convicts that we have in the Southern States, you will 
rarely find a native of any Southern State, unless it 
be a villanous negro the Abolitionists have stolen from 
us, and then sent to prison to get rid of him ! 

But, I must be indulged while I refer to the statistics 
of crime in Ohio, a State occupying a high position in 
the scale of freedom. I have inspected the last Annual 
Report of the Ohio penitentiary, and a painfully inter- 
esting document it is ! 

" The whole number received during one year, and that 
year ending November 1, 1857, was 244; white males, 205; 
colored males, 20 ; white females, 5 ; colored females, 1 -, white 
male United States prisoners, 13 ; making the uett receipts 
for one year, of white and colored, 257 ! These additions 
left 608 convicts in the penitentiary on the first of November/^ 

Where did all these come from ? w^here were they 
born ? I will give you the leading items of the Report : 

^'Africa, 2; England, 8; France, 3; Germany, 19; Ire- 
land, 27; Neio York, 37; Pennsylvania, 23; Ohio, 74. 
What were their criaies? Grand Larceny, 56; Burglary, 
44 ; Burglary and Larceny, 17 ; Horse-stealing, 25 ; Robbery,. 
10; Manslaughter, 12; Murder, 9; Murder in the first 
degree, 5. Add the 5 to the 9, and we have Murder, 14 ; 
Rape, 3; assault with intent to commit Bape, 7; and 
Bigamy 5 !" 

Here is another item ; look at it ! Of the whole 
number of 608 now confined in the Ohio penitentitiry, 
13* 



150 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

there are only 81 owning property ; without property, 
527! These 527 are "squatter sovereigns" and 
agrarian levellers, such as you send out from New 
York and other Free States, armed with Sharp s Rifles 
and Holy Bibles, to regulate Kansas affairs, and kill 
off "border ruffians." 

But, I do not propose to entertain this audience with 
declamation, or round assertions, but with facts and 
figures, which never deceive. According to the autho- 
rities of your own great city of New York [turniyig to 
Mr. Pryne), derived from the official report of the 
police, there were in that city, from May, 1846, to 
May 1847, 07ie year : 

''Committed for drunkenness alone 7,453 

Drunkenness and disorderly conduct 5,584 

Assault and battery 1,771 

Fighting in the streets when drunk 1,316 

Petit larcenies, to obtain the means of drinking. 2,209 

Attempts to kill while drunk 36 

Stabbing, in a state of intoxication 16 

Murder, committed while drunk 8 

Suspicion of murder 4 

Threatening life 53 

Highway robbery 34 

Vagrancy, growing out of drunkenness 1,259 

Lodgings to the houseless, (intemperate) 31,203 

Total 50,846'^ 

This, fellow-countrymen, was the state of morals in 
New York eleven years ago, and the journals and 
municipal reports of the city concede that they have 
annually grown worse, and that the number of ruffians 
annually committed to prison, have so increased as to 
keep pace with the increase of the population. They 



BY W . G . B R W N L W 



151 



committed for the crimes I have specified, in one year, 
and that, too, eleven years ago, 50,846 persons — more 
men than we ever had in Mexico, to subdue that 
Republic ! 

But I have other items of interest to lay before you. 
For seven years, ending with 1830, there had been 
5669 desertions in the United States army, while 
7058 had been tried by court martial during the &ame 
period. So says the Report of the Secretary of War, 
Gen. Cass, then serving under the Administration of 
Gen. Jackson. The army records, giving the nativity 
of these deserters, and offenders against martial law, 
set down 4000 of the deserters as natives of the New 
England States, and it was in view of their proneness 
to desert, that Gen. Gaines, at that time, recommended 
that army recruits be taken from the Southern States ! 

The Neiv York Herald gives a list of the failures 
of 1857, in which it appears that 884 of these failures 
are in the Free States, against 75 only in the Slave 
States ! This was during the panic of last fall, and 
up to the close of the year 1857. 

The Herald of a more recent date, sets forth the 
list of failures that have occurred in the United States, 
from the first of January to the first of April, 1858, 
giving the number of failures for the first quarter of 
the present year. I give the list entire, and call the 
attention of my opponent, and through him, of the 
civilized world, to the figures : 



'• New York State 183 

New York City 74 

Massachusetts State. 25 

Boston City 34 



104 



Pennsylvania State 

Philadelphia City ... z < 

Maryland State 10 

Baltimore City 23 



152 



AFFIRMATIVE, III. 



'' Alahama 25 

Arkansas ^ 

Connecticut 20 

Florida 2 

Geonjia 19 

Illinois 195 

Iowa 93 

Indiana 81 

Kentucky 41 

Louisiana 30 

Maine 9 

Michigan 74 

3Iississipp i 6 

3Iissouri 31 



^^ New Hampshire .... 13 

New Jersey.. 23 

North Carolina — 33 

Ohio 174 

Rhode Island 25 

Soutk Carolina 11 

Tennessee o2 

Texas 5 

Vermont 19 

Virginia 41 

Wisconsin 63 

All the Territories.. 19 



Total in U. S.... 1405' 



I italicise the fourteen Southern States, and leave 
the twelve Free States in Roman characters. Thus it 
will be seen that out of fourteen hundred and five 
failures, 312 only are in Slave States, while the 
remaining ten hundred and ninety-three are in twelve 
Free States, as monuments of their superior morality ! 
These failures foot up the round sum of $30,639,000; 
and to use the Herald's own language — " The amount 
South, is disproportional, showing that it is small 
concerns there which are breaking dow^n." 

I may be told, that the reason of the many and 
great failures in the non-slaveholding States, when 
compared with the South, is, that the " enterprizing " 
men of the country are North, the manufacturing in- 
terests, and the wealth and capitalists are there ! I 
deny this ; and I propose to throw some additional 
lio-bt upon this subject, by consulting the Federal 
Census for 1850. The census testifies that Massa- 
chusetts, which is the richest non-slaveholding State, 
could divide with each of her citizens $548. Rhode 



BY W. a. BR OWN LOW. 153 

Island, which is the next richest non-slaveholdinor 
State, could divide with each of her citizens $526; 
one other non-slaveholding State, Connecticut, could 
divide with her citizens $321. After this, the Free 
States fall down to $231; then to $228; and down 
to $160, and to $134. 

On the other hand, including whites and colored. 
South Carolina could divide $1001; Louisiana $806; 
Mississippi $702 ; and Georgia $638, with her citi- 
zens. Alabama could divide $511; Maryland $423; 
Virginia $403; Kentucky $377; North Carolina 
$367; and Tennessee could divide $248, with each 
of her citizens. 

In a division of all the property accumulated by all 
the non-slaveholding States, it will give to each citizen 
$233; while all accumulated by the various Slave 
States, will give to each citizen $439 — nearly double! 
It is not possible, with these facts before us, to believe 
that slavery tends to poverty. 

I call your attention to the Compendium of the 
United States Census, chapter v. table Ixxi. There 
you will find that there are more free mulattoes, than 
there are free blacks in the Free States. In Ohio, 
there are seven mulatto children for one in Virginia, 
according to the negro population; and in Indiana 
and Illinois, there are five for one in Tennessee and 
Georgia ! As the white people of the North do not 
marry blacks, these mulattoes must have been born 
out of wedlock. While, then, there are more mulat- 
toes in the Free States than blacks, in the South, on 
the contrary, there is only one mulatto to twelve 
blacks ! Look at New York, also, with its tens of 



154 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

thousands of public prostitutes, besides thousands of 
private ones, and compare this with the proverbial 
virtue of the white women of the Southern States. 
The white men of the North have had something to 
do with all this : let them cleanse their skirts, first, of 
these abominable sins, before they come to the South 
to lecture us upon the sin of slavery. Let them cast 
out the beam that is in their own eye, and then they 
may see clearly to cast out the mote that is in their 
Southern brother's eye. 

Crime ^ in Northern cities, absolutely keeps pace 
with pauperism. In Boston, according to official 
State Reports, a few years past, and since the taking 
of the Federal Census, one person out of every four- 
teen males, and one out of every twenty-eight females, 
was arraigned for criminal offences. According to the 
Census of 1850, there were, in the State of Massachu- 
setts, in a population of 994,514, the astonishing 
number of 7250 convicts for crime; while others 
escaped upon technicalities of the law, and for the 
want of sufficient proof, who deserved conviction ! In 
Virginia, the same year, in a population of 1,421,661, 
there were 107 convictions for crime. 

The Federal Census shows that, in the State of New 
York, from which the gentleman hails who follows me 
in this discussion, the proportion of crime is the same 
as in Massachusetts ! 

In the city of New York, in 1849, there were sen- 
tenced to the State Prison 119 men and 17 women ; 
to the Penitentiary, 700 men and 170 women ; to the 
City Prison, 162 men and 67 women — making a total 
of 1235 criminals. Here is an amount of crime, in a 



BY W. G . B R O W N L O W. 155 

single Northern city, that equals all in the fifteen 
Slave States together, for any one year ! In the 
State of New York, according to the Census of 1850, 
there were, in a population of 3,097,304, as many as 
10,279 convictions for crime; while, in South Caro- 
lina, in a population of 668,507, there were only 46 
convictions for crime, and one-fourth of these were 
Northern men ! 

The gentleman boasted, last evening, that, on his 
return home, he would take the stump for Gerritt 
Smith. I suggest to him that he had better take the 
pulpit, and try to improve the morals of his native 
State ! 

In New England, one free negro is hlind for every 
807 ; while, in the Southern States, there is only one 
blind slave for every 2645. In New England, there is 
one free negro insane for every 980; while, in the 
South, there is but one insane slave for every 3080 ! 
Can any man bring himself to believe, with these facts 
before him, that freedom in New England has proved a 
blessing to this race of people, oi* that slavery is to 
them a curse in the Southern States? The morals 
and character of the negroes themselves, are of a far 
higher grade in the Slave States than in the Free 
States, although surrounded, in the latter, by the re- 
fining and elevating influences of Black Republican 
society ! 

It is common at the North to hear men boast of the 
superior educational advantages of the Free over the 
Slave States, and of their excelling us in common school 
education, as well as in the facilities for the hio-her 
grades of learning. I here give from the Richno7id 



156 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

Enquirer^ a statement in regard to College education 
in New York and Virginia. The white population of 
New York is to that of Virginia three to one, yet 
Virginia excels her in college education. Here is a 
statement of the number of colleges, professors, stu- 
dents, &c, in New York and Virginia : 

New York. Virginia. 

" Number of colleges 8 10 

Professors 82 72 

Students 883 1,309 

Volumes in library 5,500 65,000 

Alumni 6,371 6,484 

Connected with this subject of education let me here 
introduce a paragraph from the Philadelphia North 
American, a journal decided in its opposition to Slavery 
and the South : 



'' The South, as a general rule, is better represented in 
Congress than Free States. The best men in the South are 
willing to go to Washington and to look after the interests of 
their section, and their constituents keep them there as long 
as they are desirous to serve. But it really seems as if, in 
many cases, the North picked out third rate men intentionally 
to represent them. It is quite notorious that very many who 
go to one or the other branch of Congress from the Free States 
are men without education, with only a superficial smattering 
of knowledge on a few common topics, picked up in a way 
themselves cannot explain, and who have never, until they 
found themselves in high place, associated with persons of 
good breeding. Their only arts are those of the demagogue 
or the trickster. They are utterly incapable of rising to any 
commanding views of national policy, or comprehending in 
its full significance our Constitution, and the principles of our 
government. The intrigues and management of the petty 
politician are alone within their scope. '^ 



BY W. G. BROAVNLOAV. 157 

The Legislature of Wisconsin, composed of Anti- 
Slavery men, not long since closed a protracted and 
angry session, and has given to the world the report 
of an " Investigating Committee," setting forth a degree 
of bribery and corruption in legislation never before 
heard of in a Christian country, and such as would put 
rotten Denmark, or unprincipled Russia to the blush ! 
The "La Crosse Raih'oad Company," a moonshine 
enterprise, bribed the Legislature. I give the language 
and figures of the Report : 

" Of the bribed Senators, nine were Democrats, who re- 
ceived $135,000 ; and three were RepubHcans, who received 
$30,000. The only Senators who voted against the bill, were 
six Repubhcans. They refused all offers of bribes. 

" In the Assembly, fifty-seven members received bribes as 
follows : 

38 Democratic members received $260,000 

19 Republican members 95,000 

" Seven members of the Assembly refused bribes ; six of 

whom were Republicans, and one a Democrat. Of other 

State ofiicers who received bribes, were — 

A Republican Governor 850,000 

Democratic Bank Comptroller 10,000 

Democratic Lieutenant-Governor 10,000 

Democratic Clerk of Assembly 5,000 

Dem. Assistant Clerk of Assembly 10,000 

"To recapitulate, the account stands thus : 

" Number of Democratic members and State officers who 
were bribed is 51. 

Amount received by them $480,000 

" Number of Republican members and State officers bribed 
is 23. 

Amount received by them $175,000 

" The above exhibit is confined to the members and State 
officers. When we go beyond that, we find that the Demo- 
cracy have fairly wallowed in corruption. To a moonshine 

14 



158 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

railroad, of which Democratic Ex-Gov. Barstow was president, 
$1,000,000 of La Crosse county bonds was given, as its share 
of the plunder, which was divided out by Barstow and his 
followers, he receiving $80,000, his private Secretary $52,000, 
the editor of the Madison Argus during Barstow's adminis- 
tration $52,000, and so on. To other outside papers there 
was paid, for their influence, $246,000 ; about $40,000 went 
to Republicans, and the rest to Democrats.^' 

Now the point I propose to make is, that of the 
nativity of these thieves. They are Worther7i men — 
cradled in opposition to the institution of negro slavery. 
The reason why the Democrats outstole the Republicans 
is, that they were the most numerous in that Legisla- 
ture ; but all were for making Kansas a Free State, as 
their resolutions show. What a commentary upon the 
morality and integrity of Anti- Slavery men, hailing 
from the New England States ! 

Look at the journals of Congress, in all time past, 
and when investigating committees have been raised to 
ferret out bribery and corruptions, the guilty parties 
have turned out to be from Free States. For instance, 
look at your Mattisons, of New York ! Are $87,000 
given by Lawrence, Stone, & Co., to hrihe Congressmen 
and Editors to enact a Tariff law to suit the North, 
Northern Congressmen, and Northern editors get the 
corruption fund and divide it out among them ! Offer 
a Southern Representative or Senator a bribe for his 
vote to aid in swindling the Government, and he spits 
in your face, at the same time that he slaps your jaws ! 
But make the offer to a Northern Representative or 
Senator, and he looks to the ground — then raises his 
hang-dog countenance, and articulates, " I guess I will 



• BYW. G. BROWNLOW. 159 

take it — you can rely upon me !" This is the difference 
between Southern gentlemen and Northern Abolitionists! 
The New York Senate appointed a '' Select Com- 
mittee" to visit in person the " Charitable Institutions 
of the State, and the City and County Poor and Work- 
Houses, and Jails," and report thereon. I find this 
Report on page 23, of the New York "Journal of 
Medical Reform," for May, 185T, Vol. V., No. 1; and 
from this document I take a single extract : 

" Who could have imagined that our poor-houses, erected 
at the expeose of our humane and virtuous people, and sup- 
ported by their money, were thus turned into houses of pros- 
titution, where adultery and Hcentiousness in their most 
revoking forms abound, and go unchecked and unpunished. 
Who kneiv that these poor-houses in our very midst were but 
so many vile nests of moral and physical pollution ? 

"The record does not stop here, for we are told that 'the 
treatment of lunatics and idiots in these houses is frequently 
abusive. The sheds and cells where they are confined are 
wretched abodes, often wholly unprovided with bedding. la 
most cases female lunatics had none but male attendants. 
Instances were testified to of the whipping of male and 
female idiots and lunatics, and of confining the latter in loath- 
some cells and binding them with chains' * * * < In some 
poor houses the committee found lunatics, both male and 
female, in cells, in a state of nudity. The cells were intole- 
rably offensive, littered with the long-accumulated filth of the 
occupants, and with straw reduced to chaff by long use as 
bedding, portions of which, mingled with the filth adhered 
to the persons of the inmates and formed the only covering 
they had.' Talk of the horrors of the cells and dungeons 
of the Inquisition ! Utter pious ejaculations over the repul- 
sive aspects of Southern slavery ! Send millions of money 
to 'improve the moral and spiritual condition of the Flat- 
head Indians and the world of heathenism !' What a picture 
is this for the contemplation of a Christian community ! It 
is not a picture of the fancy; it is a stern and shocking 
reality. The condition of the slave is paradise to the atroci- 



160 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

ties and suffering and tortures sueli as are hero depicted. Let 
us turn our eyes and hearts homeward, for here is a field 
broad enough for the exercise of our superabundant sympa- 
thies. Let slavery, which we have not the right or the power 
to mitigate or remove, occupy less of our thoughts and time 
and attention, and let us turn to the relief and removal of a 
system of cruelty and injustice which exists at our very 
thresholds.'' 

I will now present you a few cases of Northern 
fanaticism, illustrative of the Infidel spirit, and Infidel 
tendency of the Northern mind. A Woman's Rights 
Convention was held at Rutland, in Vermont, in Juno 
last, composed of an equal number of fools and fanatics, 
of both sexes — representing Free Lovers, Free Soilers, 
Abolitionists, Spiritualists, Trance Mediums, Bible Re- 
pudiators, and representatives of every other crazy ism 
known to the annals of bedlam. The proceedings of 
this Convention were considered of sufficient importance 
to be reported in full by the New York city papers. 

After resolving in reference to the Rights of Woman 
— that she has a right to be virtuous or otherwise, as 
may suit her inclinations, the Convention adopted by 
acclamation the following articles of faith : 

1. ^^ Resolved, That the authority of each individual soul 
is absolute and final, in deciding all questions as to what is 
true or false in principle, and right or wrong in practice. 
Therefore, the individual, the Church, or the State, that 
attempts to control the opinions or the practice of any man 
or woman, by authority of power outside of his or her own 
soul, is guilty of a flagrant wrong. 

2. ^^ Resolved, That slavery is a wrong which no power in 
the Universe can make right; therefore, any law, constitu- 
tion, court, or government; any church, priesthood, creed or 
Bible ; any Christ or any Cod that by silence or otherwise 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 161 

authorizes man to enslave man^ merits the scorn and con- 
tempt of mankind. 

3. '^Eesoh-ed, That the earth, like air and light, belongs in 
common to the children of men, and on it each human being 
is alike dependent. Each child, by virtue of its existence, 
has an equal and inalienable right to as much of the earth's 
surface as is convenient by proper culture to support and 
perfect its development, and none has a right to any more. 

4. ^'Besolved, That all efforts of Churches and priests to 
enforce an observance of a Christian Sabbath as of Divine 
appo in f merit, is a flagrant violation of individual right, and 
must be prosecuted in a dishonest disregard of the spirit and 
positive teachings of the New Testament. 

5. '^Resolved, That nothing is true or right, and nothing 
is false or wrong, because it is sanctioned or condemned by 
the Bible ; therefore the Bible is powerless to prove any doc- 
trine to be true, or any practice to be right, and it should 
never be quoted for that purpose." 

What a mixture of woman's rights, land reform, 
Abolition fanaticism, Sabbath-hating, and Bible-opposing 
theology. And yet, the sentiments advanced here by 
this clerical gentleman are in u7iison with these in all 
material respects. 

In May last, a Keform Convention, and a Woman's 
Rights Society met, numerously attended. The in- 
famous objects of the Society are thus alluded to by 
the New York Dai/ Book : 

" Friday, May 14, 1858, was a day that every honest New 
Yorker — every unperverted man and woman — ought to be 
asham-ed of. For be it known that on that day there met a 
Convention of men and women, white and black, in this 
city, and, strange as it may seem, open and undisguised 
prostitution was advocated ! Here, in a country that is send- 
ing thousands and thousands of dollars to convert the heathen 
— to instruct them in the principles of Christianity — there 
are those who openly promulgate the beastly doctrine of 
14* 



162 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

promiscuous intercourse between tlie sexes ! Can this be 
believed ? If not, let the report of the proceedings of the 
Woman's Rights Convention testify/' 

I quote once more from the Day Book, a conserva- 
tive and reputable Journal : 

"There are no orgies recorded in the annals of Roman 
degradation more disgusting than the recent meeting of this 
so-called Woman's Rights Convention. Negroes, mulattoes 
and mongrels, of all colors and shades of colors, mixed up 
with men and women calling themselves white — women 
without delicacy or decency, lost to modesty or shame, and 
men bold in beastliness made up the staple of this gathering. 
Even George W. Curtis, a man whom even his enemies would 
charitably suppose would have not been found in such a 
place, was there, and disgraced himself by calling the Presi- 
dent of the United States 'a pimp,' He advocated the 
right of suffrage for women, and contributed, by his presence, 
to lend whatever influence he has to the pernicious doctrines 
promulgated." 

Just in this connection, lest I omit it, I beg leave to 
introduce an extract from the Report on Home 
Missions, recently presented at the ^'Massachusetts 
General Association," and copied by the New York 
Ohserver. 

" From reliable statistics it appears that in Mainc^ New 
Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, not more than one 
quarter of the icliole population are in the habit of attending 
church. There are one million three hundred thousand 
people in New England, who, so far as attending church is 
concerned, are, practically, like the heathen. There are 
twenty-six towns in this State, (Massachusetts,) which have 
no evangelical preaching." 

The gentleman inquired last evening, why we did 
not teach our slaves to read the Bible ? We do, more 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 163 

or less, in every Southern State. But I ask him, why 
they do not send the Gospel to these "one million 
three hundred thousand" Northern heathens ? 

But a few months ago the 25th annual session of the 
"American Anti-Slavery Society" was held at Mozart 
Hall, in New York, and the Herald has this notice 
of it : 

" The twenty-fifth annual saturnaha of the conglomerated 
isms composing the Garrisonian American Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, commenced yesterday morning, at Mozart Hall, Broad- 
way, with the usual incongruous assemblage. There were 
^ black spirits and white,' of every shade; strong-minded 
women, with diminutive hoops, eye-glasses, green spectacles, 
and unfashionable bonnets; weak-minded men, with a super- 
abundance of hair and an evident predilection for the Gra- 
hamite diet, and the usual scattering of old ladies, blue stock- 
ings, silly girls, and noisy little boys. Though the meeting 
was called for 10 A. M., the audience collected slowly, and 
at twenty minutes after ten, the hour for commencing the 
performances, the room was nearly half full. After the plat- 
form had been partly filled with men, women, and blacks, 
and the old ladies had subsided into a quiet body of friendly 
gossip, the President of the Society, Mr. Wm. Lloyd Garri- 
son, opened the meeting by reading a detached portion of 
Scripture, designed to show a biblical opposition to slavery.'' 

The meeting adopted, by acclamation, an infamous 
string of resolutions, and Charles L. Bemond, (black) 
Wendell Philips, (white) Miss Frances Mien Watkins, 
(black) Wm. Garrison and Udmond Quincy, (white) 
made speeches, sustaining the following resolutions : 

" Resolved, That chattel slavery is delineated in its whips 
and chains, its yokes and thumb-screws, its paddles and 
branding-irons, its drivers and blood-hounds, its scourgings 
arid mutilations, its bloody persecutions and horrible cruS- 
ties, its abrogation of the marriage institution and enforced 
licentiousness, its athletic assumptions of power above all that 



104 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

is called God, its devilish nature and accursed aim, its throng- 
ing perjuries and shocking blasphemies; and the steady 
growth and constant expansion of a system so frightful, are 
demonstrative proof that to this nation most justly applies 
the description of the prophet : ' Their feet run to evil, and 
they make haste to shed innocent blood — ^judgment is turned 
away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is 
fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter ; and he that de- 
parteth from evil maketh himself a prey/ 

" Resolved, That the day has gone by (if it ever existed) 
here at the North, to frame or to offer any apology in behalf 
of Southern slaveholders, but, having revealed themselves to 
be the enemies of freedom universally, merciless and profli- 
gate in spirit, desperate and heaven defying in purpose, and 
bent on eternising their terrible oppression, they are to be 
classed among the most dangerous and depraved of the hu- 
man race, and treated accordingly. 

" Resolved, That we register our testimony against the 
American church, the popular religion, and the government 
of the United States — because, by their deliberate consent 
and active co-operation, four millions of our countrymen are 
held in the galling chains of bondage, whose emancipation is 
resisted by them with exceeding obduracy of spirit and ma- 
lignity of purpose. 

'' Resolved, That the ^ revival of religion,^ which has swept 
over the country with contagious rapidity during the last 
three months, is manifestly delusive and spurious, exceptional 
cases to the contrary notwithstanding ; because it has ex- 
pressly excluded the millions in bondage from all considera- 
tion — has multiplied its converts as readily at the South as 
at the North." 

Henry Ward Beecher, the great bell-wether of 
the New York Anti-Slavery flock, in his " Life 
Thoughts," says : 

''The Bible Society is sending its Bibles all over the world 
— to Greenland and the Morea, to Arabia and Egypt; but 
it dares not send them to our own people. The colporteur 
who should leave a Bible in a slave cabin would go to heaven 
from the lowest limb of the first tree.'' 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 165 

In this, Mr. Beecher is greatly mistaken. There are 
thousands of "slave's cabins " in the South, where the 
Bible may be found — where it is read and loved by 
slaves. In the city where I reside, there are two large 
Sabbath Schools for the slaves, where they are taught 
to read, and love the Bible. The one is under the care 
of the Methodist, the other of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. Indeed, Bibles may be left at all the " slave's 
cabins " of the South, with perfect safety to the colpor- 
teur. We really desire our slaves to be furnished with 
Bibles, and taught how to read them ; first, because it 
will promote their spiritual interests ; and next, because 
in that glorious Book, they are taught to be obedient 
to their masters ; and further, that they are slaves by 
God's own appointment ! To our slaves, and all others, 
we say of the Bible : 

" This sacred book, from Heaven bestowM, 
The apostate world to bless — 
A light to mark the pilgrim's road 
Through this dark wilderness 

" This book reveals a Saviour's charms, 
And life and light bestows, 
Secures my soul from death's alarms, 
Or aggravates my woes. 

"I would not let this volume lie 
Neglected and unknown ; 
For it must raise me to the sky, 
Or bear my spirit down." 

A Southern correspondent of the Philadelphia 
Christian Observer^ makes the following sensible and 
pertinent remarks on the subject of "elevating the 
colored race." And what he says is but a specimen 



166 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

of what is being done in the South, in teaching the 
slaves and gathering them into the fold of Christ. By 
hundreds and thousands, they are flocking into the 
Church. What are Abolitionists doing for them? 
What do they propose to do? 

But, to the remarks of this correspondent : 

" Georgia has not the honor, as I supposed, of the largest 
church in the United States, black or white : for Virs-inia 
claims that distinction. The Baptist church (African) in 
Richmond, Va., numbers 2700 communicants!! — truly a 
congregation to be proud of. The Baptists have 52,000 
colored communicants in Eastern Virginia alone. There is 
is a colored church in Petersburg, Va., of 1800, and another 
of 1400. In Charleston, S. C, the Presbyterian Synod re- 
presents nearly 5000 colored members, Throughout Loui- 
siana, large congregations of slaves are found. In New Orleans, 
one African Methodist has 1350 members, and six colored 
missionaries. A devoted Episcopal clergyman, who labors 
among the people of eleven plantations in Louisiana, says : 
' It has never been my privilege to declare the glorious truths 
of the Gospel of the blessed God to more orderly, quiet, 
serious congregations/ that 'their hearts are unfeignedly 
thankful,' and that 'they show forth his praise not only 
with their lips, but in their lives.' The labors of pious 
missionaries are gladly encouraged among slaves by their 
masters — even by those who are not themselves professors.'' 

But, gentlemen, the time I have already occupied 
admonishes me that I must give way to the gentleman 
who is to reply to me; and this I shall do after I 
consume a few brief moments. 

The cities and towns, and many of the interior 
settlements, in the New England and North-western 
States of this Confederacy, in my honest judgment, 
open a wider and more inviting field, at this time, for 
honest, faithful, evangelical missionary labors, than 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 167 

Hindostan, Siam. Ceylon, China, or "Western Africa ; 
for the reason, too, that the natives of these benighted 
lands, who have been denied the light of the blessed 
Gospel, cannot be held to as rigid an accountability, in 
the next life, as those who see the light, like the Free- 
Soil population of the North, and still love and do the 
deeds of darkness! I seriously contemplate getting 
up a missionary organization, to be styled : '' The 
Missionary Society of the South, for the Con- 
version OF THE FrEEDOM-ShRIEKERS, SPIRITUALISTS, 

Free-Lovers, Fourierites, and Infidel Reformers 
OF THE North !" All jesting aside, duty, principle, 
and expediency imperatively demand that we should 
send among our deluded Northern neighbors a corps 
of competent missionaries. I am willing to lead the 
way, and to open the campaign on Boston Common ; 
and if I shall succeed in converting my brother Pryne 
from the "error of his ways," I would be pleased to 
have him go with me as an exliorter^ and he would 
then be occupying the same position he does in this 
debate ! May I hope for your conversion ? (turning 
to the gentleman.) He shakes his head — he gives 
me an emphatic No ! No, gentlemen, I have no hope 
of the reformation of the clergy of New England. 
The Evangelist Luke tells us that it was not until a 
multitude of the common j^^ople believed, that the 
priests became obedient to the faith! 

Christian masters and slaves of the glorious South 
cannot remain guiltless, in a coming day, if they fold 
their arms and look idly on at the heart-sickening 
spectacle now presented by — not their brethren — but 
their fellow-creatures of the North, and do nothing 



168 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

to turn them from their abominations! In addition 
to their wicked and rebellious course upon the slavery 
question, they have forsaken, to a very great extent, 
the true God and the Christian religion, and gone after 
Spiritualism, Abolitionism, Fanny- Wrightism, Fourier- 
ism, Mormonism, Free-Loveism, and the hundred and 
one isms so spontaneously produced by the soil of New 
England ! True, the path of a Southern missionary, 
in the midst of the isms, cruelties, and crimes of the 
North, enforcing morality and honesty, would not be 
strewed with flowers. But let him fall back for con- 
solation upon the sublime sentiment of the poet : 

"Am I a soldier of the Cross, 
A follower of the Lamb — 
And shall I fear to own his cause, 
Or blush to speak his name ? 

" Must I be carried to the skies 
On flowery beds of ease, 
While others fought to win the prize, 
And sail'd through bloody seas ? 

" Sure I must JigM, if I would reign ; 
Increase my courage, Lord ; 
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, 
Supported by thy word. 

" Thy saints [of the South !] in all this glorious war, 
Shall conquer, though they die ; 
They see the triumph from afar. 
By faith they bring it nigh!'' 

In conclusion, I will only offer a few criticisms upon 
the speech of the gentleman last evening, and I will 
then yield him the stand. He denied that the term 
servant means slave, and he sustained his position by a 



BY W. G . B 11 O W N L W. 169 

quotation from Albert Barnes, an Abolition preacher 
of Philadelphia. I asserted, and I now repeat, that 
the word rendered servants in the Bible invariably 
means slaves; and I sustained my position by the 
Bible and the Greek Lexicon. But the gentleman 
advised you, last night, to trample under foot a Bible 
that favors the institution of slavery ! 

Last evening, the gentleman stood here, and with a 
knowledge that we had bound ourselves not to inter- 
rupt each other when speaking, asserted that I had 
said, the Bible and the Almighty advise the carrying 
on of the slave-trade ; and that, the night before, I 
had denounced the slave-trade ! 

Now, whether the gentleman intended to make a 
false impression upon the minds of those who heard 
him, and who may read the newspaper report of what 
he said, I will not say; but this I do say, he has left a 
false impression. In my first address, I denounced 
the African slave-trade as piracy, and the unprincipled 
traders of New England for engaging in it. In my 
address last evening, I quoted a passage from the law 
of bondage written out by Moses, to show that the 
people of those days bought and sold slaves, and held 
them as property. Out of these two facts, the gentle- 
man has fabricated a charge he ought to be ashamed 
of, and publicly take back ! 

The assertion that Christian masters at the South 
chain their negroes to carts while they go to the com- 
munion table, is as destitute of any foundation in 
truth, as was that unblushing avowal of the Devil to 
Christ, that he owned all the kingdoms of the world, 
and could give him a legal title to them ! 
15 



170 AFFIRMATIVE, III. 

The assertion by Mr. Pryne, that Frederick Douglass 
and Sam Ward are intellectually his superiors, I do 
not doubt, after the exhibition he has made of himself 
on this stand ! But I do not think it follows, as a 
matter of course, that they are giants in intellect. 
They may be intellectually his superiors, and still be 
moderate men ! These free negroes hail from Syracuse, 
I believe, and Mr. Pryne tells me that is the place of 
his nativity. I will not pause to inquire if anything 
good can come out of Nazareth, alias Syracuse, but I 
will ask the gentleman one or two questions, and I 
insist on a reply to them. As he holds these two free 
negroes in such high esteem, both on account of their 
integrity and talents ; as they have sons, and Mr. 
Pryne says he has a little daughter — would he be 
willing to see her united in matrimony to one of these 
huch negroes ? Answer the question, and the colored 
persons here to-night will know how to appreciate your 
friendship ! Show jonr faith by your tvorks, and marry 
your children off to the sons and daughters of these 
talented negroes ! 

Finally, I do not expect the gentleman to meet the 
issues I have presented this evening. To evade these, 
he announced to you last evening what his subject 
should be this evening. It is much easier for the 
gentleman to travel the old and beaten path of Aboli- 
tion slang-whanging, than to fall into the new road I 
have marked out for him ! 



REPLY 
''To 3Ir. Brownlow' s '' Statemeyit.' 



When tlie reading of Mr. Brownlow's statement 
was concluded, 

Mr. Pryne rose and said: Gentlemen, I wish to 
make a brief statement in reply to that which you 
have just heard. 

In the correspondence between my opponent and 
myself, it was agreed that our speeches in this debate 
should be of an hour in length ; or, should they, under 
the pressure of any special occasion, go beyond that 
limit, their duration should not exceed an hour and a 
half. Every speech of Mr. Brownlow thus far, has 
extended beyond the time agreed on as the ordinary 
limit, and has occupied nearly an hour and a half. 
While I admit that, as a matter of courtesy and dis- 
cretion on my part, I am at liberty to allow him to 
consume more than an hour, courtesy and discretion 
on his part demand that he should not, taking advan- 
tage of the privilege stipulated in the correspondence, 
overrun the limits of the hour on every occasion, and 

then claim it as a right. 

(171) 



172 REPLY TO MR. BROWNLOW'S STATEMENT. 

Gentlemen, in this respect I have exhausted courtesy, 
I have gone beyond its cLaims, in order to sustain the 
honor and dignity of my side of the Union. From 
the South I have been accustomed to expect the 
extremest courtesy ; yet now, what was extended as a 
privilege, is claimed as a right. 

Having exhausted the bounds of courtesy, I fall 
back upon my rights, and ask him to keep himself 
within the hour at least half the time. I stand for the 
hour as the limit of the time. 

He says that I have not been interrupted. No ; and 
for the very good reason, that I have not overstrained 
courtesy and good manners, and demanded that the 
audience should interrupt me. Nor do I intend to do so. 

He says he asks no favors. I have not asked a 
favor ; nor shall I. I ask my rights, and shall maintain 
them. 

He remarks that many gentlemen from the South 
are here, and have been. I am glad of it ; but if this 
statement is designed as a crack of the whip to intimi- 
date me into giving him more than his rights in this 
debate, it is utterly futile, for I accept no such intimi- 
dation. AVhether gentlemen are from the South or 
the North, I care not. I only ask my rights, accord- 
ing to the agreement, and shall maintain them. 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 

Negative, III. — By Abram Pryne. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — I rise to fulfil the promise 
I made last evening, that my argument to-night should 
be made up very much of figures. I am happy to be 
able to say that my preparation made, traverses the 
ground that the gentleman has gone over, perfectly ; 
and I shall not be in the slightest degree at fault, in 
being able to meet the argument which he has made. 

Before I proceed to do so, however, allow me to offer 
one or two preliminary observations that seem to me to 
be at this point fitting. The insinuation was thrown 
out to-night in the preliminary statement of my oppo- 
nent, that perhaps I and my friends wanted to recede 
from this debate. I now say, that so long as Mr. 
Brownlow wishes to repeat with me this debate in the 
principal cities of the North, giving me half the time, 
and the selection of place, and making of arrangements 
which he has had in this case, half of the time, he will 
find me on hand to meet him, whether on Boston Com- 
mon or elsewhere. 

My opponent in his speech of to-night spoke of my 
conversion, and wished to know whether there was not 
a hope that he could make me an exhorter. I have 
been practising here what I trust is very fair exhorta- 
tion for a raw hand, and when he shall be converted 
15* (173) 



174 NEGATIVE, III. 

from the sins I have recounted before him, and which 
stare him and his people of the South in the face, like 
the ghosts of centuries of crime, then let him come and 
ask me for a new strain of exhortation, and he shall 
have it. I mean to prove "my call," by preaching to 
the nearest and greatest sinners first, and when he and 
they show " works meet for repentance" I will begin 
with sinners of a milder type. 

And now a word with reference to general state- 
ments. Of course, a man may make an hour's argu- 
ment professedly based upon facts, and of every other 
fact the bottom may have fallen out, if it ever had one ; 
yet, in an impromptu reply, one cannot be expected to 
gather up all these fallacious statements and answer 
them. So, gentlemen, in regard to many of these 
statements that have been brought forward as facts, do 
not take it for granted that I believe them, that they 
are incontrovertibly true, simply because I do not put 
my finger in every case on the flaw. Why gentlemen, 
I have to-night and heretofore, laughed in my sleeve 
from the perfect consciousness that the veriest school- 
boys all over the North are able to understand and to 
tell the gentleman, that many of the professed facts 
which are paraded as a marked feature in the argument 
of my opponent, are entirely without foundation. And 
gentlemen, as this is not a primary school, and as I 
will trust the correction of these mistatements with the 
primary schools of the entire North, do not ask me to 
consume my time in refuting them. 

Something has been said with reference to my lan- 
guage being harsh, as though mine were strange words 
coming from the source they do. But, gentlemen, I 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 175 

have a harsh subject to deal with — haggard, and fierce, 
and bloody, and grim — towering upward, in the enor- 
mity of its own moral darkness, above all other wrongs 
that have cursed the world ; and am I expected to de- 
scribe it in dulcet phrase, and with silken words ? Give 
me a pleasant subject, and I will do my best to set it 
forth in pleasant words. Give me a subject that is all 
full of horrors, and I will do my best to make those 
horrors start forth in the words that I employ. 

In regard to the remarks of my opponent to-night, I 
will charge upon the first half of his speech with a 
single broadside, that can be all gathered up into a 
single retort, based upon a universally-known fact, and 
then I shall pass on to the other branch of my 
argument. 

We have had read to us comparative statements of 
the criminal statistics of the North and the South. I 
do not, in many cases, accept these statistics as correct ; 
for even without the census report before me, I was 
able to detect many erroneous statements. Besides, 
they are gathered up and thrown out in such a general, 
vague Avay, that one cannot, in every case, hunt down 
the misstatement. Like the Irishman's fleas, you put 
your finger on them, and they are not there. I can 
well afford to let not a few of his statistical assump- 
tions alone, to sink by their own weight ; and it would 
be folly for me, before an intelligent people, to spend 
time in hunting them, for the game is not worth the 
effort, and will break its own neck in the chase if left 
alone. 

But, gentlemen, I can reply to all these criminal 
statistics in a word. There are. in the Slave States 



176 NEGATIVE, III. 

of this Union, 250,000 criminals, who have robbed 
humanity of three million men, women and children, 
desolating the cradles, disrupting the marriage rela- 
tions, breaking up families, and selling many of the 
daughters to prostitution. These criminals are yet 
unti-ied, unconvicted, unsentenced. They are on trial 
before the moral sense of the wide world to-night ; and 
when the moral sense of the world shall have carried 
out in their case the same principles of law which the 
North applies to those who violate justice and freedom, 
then come to me with your prison statistics of the 
South, adding these 250,000, and I will figure with 
you. We of the North punish such criminals, while 
you of the South send them to Congress to make laws. 

Now, gentlemen, I shall ask you to listen to an 
argument of statistics. Such an argument might be, 
in most cases, dry; but this will, as it seems to me, 
bear so pat upon the question that I doubt not you will 
listen with interest. For I am not talking to lazy men 
and women, who are unwilling to think, but I feel that 
I address those who are ready to take all the trouble 
necessary to a just decision of the question discussed. 
I shall argue to prove that American slavery ought to 
be abolished because it desolates the fair soil of the 
South with poverty ; because it diminishes the value of 
the land ; because it stands in the way of all material 
progress ; because it impoverishes the whole country 
over which it spreads. 

In proving these positions, I shall make a contrast 
between the North and the South in all the elements 
of material wealth, taking my statistics in all cases 
from the Census Reports, collected and supervised by 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 177 

a Carolinian, who cannot be at all suspected of 
doing injustice to the South. In wliat I state my 
authority shall be De Bow. 

The North is usually called the sterile North. The 
South is denominated (in the language used by Mr. 
Brownlow in the course of our correspondence — much 
better language, by the way, than that employed in 
some other parts of that correspondence) " the sunny 
South." We of the North are considered as dwelling 
among bleak hills, where chilling winds sweep over our 
mountain-tops. The fruits that grow at all are con- 
sidered to be of little worth, and the grain that we raise 
is thought to be dug from among the rocks. The South, 
on the other hand, is " the sunny South." Let us see 
how they compare in all the elements of material wealth, 
and then inquire what has caused the difference. 

The entire area of the Free States of this Union is 
392,062,082 acres ; the entire area of the Slave States, 
544,926,720 acres ; the difference in favor of the Slave 
States being 152,844,638. The settlement of these 
various portions of the country was almost simultaneous. 
In 1850, the difference of population in favor of the 
Free States was 3,821,946. The natural advantages 
of the Slave States, if they had been open to settle- 
ment on the same terms as were the Free States, and 
if their institutions had invited settlement, would have 
caused their population to far exceed that of the North. 
But no man can enter the South until he has sworn 
allegiance to Slavery, and done obeisance to its demands. 
The men who came from Germany — driven out by the 
waves of European revolution — the hard-handed men 
from all quarters of the globe, who settle down in our 



178 NEGATIVE, II T. 

free Northern valleys and grow up in a little while into 
thrifty, hardy, useful citizens, are all shut out from the 
South, because her institutions are vitally antagonistic 
to freedom and free labor ; and the European peasant 
comes here to work with his own hands. He has learned 
to hate oppression from his sad experience at home, 
and has no desire to degrade himself by coming into 
competition with slave labor. It is this class who build 
our magnificent public works, opening for us the chan- 
nels of a rich inland commerce, and making our North- 
ern territory a rich network of canals and railroads, 
bringing the carrying trade of the world to each city 
and rural hamlet in our half of the Union. 

Again, the soil of the South would be worth much 
more per acre than the soil of the North, were it not 
for the fact that the institutions of the South have 
cursed the soil and made its settlement almost impossi- 
ble. They have overrun their ground with a mere hoe, 
skimming the surface and extracting the life-blood of 
the soil by a murderous system of tillage — carrying 
nothing back to supply the drainage produced by con- 
tinual crops upon the same ground ; while the North 
plows deep, and farms in a suitable and scientific 
manner ; yet the average value of land at the North is 
$28.07 per acre, while in the South it is only $5.34, 
makino; the difference in favor of the North $22.63 per 
acre. Is it not slavery that thus depreciates the value 
of land in the South ? While the South has more land 
than the North by over 150,000,000 of acres, yet her 
whole soil is worth less in the market than it would 
have been, if free, and at Northern prices per acre, by 
$11,988,387,840. This is what slavery has wrenched 



BY A BR AM PRYNL". 179 

from the value of Southern soil — heing many times the 
estimated value of the whole slave population of the 
South. Every slave has cost many times his value in 
the impoverishment of the soil, the retarding of the 
settlement and growth of the country, resulting from 
the institution of slavery which has been there per- 
petuated. 

Astounding as these figures are, they cannot be con- 
tradicted. So overwhelming are they, that on the first 
examination I was myself shocked at their apparent 
improbability ; but careful investigation only confirms 
them. I charge upon slavery that it has eaten out of 
the bosom of the sunny South this mighty sum of 
$11,988,387,840. 

What a vast mine of wealth to sacrifice on the altar 
of slavery ! What a sum to sink into the fathomless 
maw of such a monster crime ! all for the purpose of 
allowing 250,000 slaveholders to lord it over their 
negroes, keep race-horses, and vary the amusements of 
gambling, fighting, and drinking, by an occasional dash 
into politics, to play the game of Southern statesman- 
ship, and, when weary of that, to astonish the waiters 
and attachees of Northern hotels by blustering about 
Northern watering-places. 

I would now contrast some statistics in relation to 
New York and North Carolina. In New York, there 
was assessed for taxes, in 1856, 30,080,000 acres, 
which were valued at the rate of $36.97 per acre. 
In North Carolina, the same year, 32,450,560 acres 
were valued at $3.06 per acre — a difference of over 
thirty dollars an acre. Between the valuation of the 
State of New York and that of North Carolina, the 



180 NEGATIVE, III. 

total difference is $1,023,332,500. There was just 
thirty-six years' difference in time of the original set- 
tlement of these two States. Sunny Carolina, having 
altogether the advantage of my own rock-ribbed native 
State, ought to have been far in advance in the valua- 
tion of her real estate. But, thank God, the hard- 
handed freemen of New York have been able, while 
gathering wealth from the bosom of the soil by science, 
and art, and genius, to still pour it back again, that 
they may gather it, year after year, while the soil still 
becomes more valuable. 

This is your contrast between freedom and slavery. 
While one steadily impoverishes, the other steadily 
enriches ; and the hard rocks and bleak hills of New 
York are, under freedom, worth far more than the 
rich soil of North Carolina, under slavery. But we 
are told that the products of the South are, many of 
them, very rich. "Only think," say Southern planters, 
"of our cotton crop and sugar crop, and our tobacco 
crop." Let us now examine the statistics as to the 
value of these great crops. I intend to prove this 
proposition, that the aggregate value of the cotton, 
tobacco, rice, hay, hemp, and sugar of the South is 
outweighed in market value by the single hay crop of 
the Free States. The total value of all these crops, 
as given by the undoubted authority on which I rely, 
is $138,605,725. The hay crop of the North is 
12,690,982 tons. That, reckoned at $11.20 per ton 
(which is the average valuation by the Bureau of Agri- 
culture at Washington, and it often brings $26 per 
ton in Baltimore), makes the excess in value of the 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 181 

hay crop of the North over the aggregate value of the 
Southern crops which I have named, $3,533,275. 

Gentlemen, shall I not breathe into the words of 
scorn with which I condemn cotton-worshippers of the 
North, a deeper sting, when I exhibit this startling 
fact. This is the great cotton-god, so much worshipped 
in the North as well as the South ! This is the cotton- 
god that is supposed to be so mighty at a distance! — 
so rich when he flaunts himself at the North! — so 
wealthy when he puts on airs in Northern cities and 
among Northern men! — this cotton-god, weighed in 
the hay-scales of the North, is found to be worth less 
in the market, in dollars and cents, than the hay with 
which we of the North feed our horses. 

And why is not the value of Southern productions 
greater ? Because her system of tillage impoverishes 
the soil; because her laborers are not owners, gene- 
rally, but work under the lash ; because they have no 
hope of reaping themselves the fruit of their labor, and 
can feel no interest in its results. These workers of 
the South are almost called heathen by my friend on 
the opposite side; and it would take the sublimest type 
of Christianity to make them care anything for the 
interests of the man who lashes them in the cotton- 
field, and does not pay them for their labor. 

The entire wealth of the Slave States, as per Cen- 
sus report, is $2,936,090,737. The total wealth of 
the Free States $4,002,172,108 — making the differ- 
ence in favor of the Free States, $1,166,081,371. Do 
not these figures warrant me in saying that the sterile 
and rocky North has a chance yet to make its own 
living, and get along in the world, and is not entirely 
16 



182 NEGATIVE; III. 

dependent upon the patronage of the South, that grows 
a little cotton, now and then, to help us along; while 
our hay crop at the Nortli outweighs in value all these 
great staple products of the South. 

Even if cotton should cease to rule the politics and 
religion, and morality and literature of the nation, may 
we not hope that the people of the North would be 
able to get along, and keep from becoming paupers? 
Let us now contrast the amount of grain raised in the 
two sections. The- North raises, on an average, twenty- 
seven bushels of oats to the acre ; the South raises se- 
venteen. The North raises, on an average, eighteen 
bushels of rye to the acre ; the South raises eleven. Of 
corn, the North raises thirty-one bushels per acre ; the 
South twenty bushels. Of potatoes, the North raises 
125 bushels per acre, and the South 113 bushels. "Why 
this falling oif on the side of the South, notwithstand- 
ing its great natural advantages ? It is merely be- 
cause of her slave system of tillage. 

On all articles of bushel measure, the difference in 
value in favor of the North, is $44,782,636. On all 
articles of pound measure, the difference in favor of the 
North, $59,199,103. 

Let us now consider the subject of commerce. The 
tonnao;e of the North is 4.252,615 tons ; that of the 
South is 855,517 tons. The annual exports of the 
North amounted in value in 1855 to $167,520,693; 
the exports of the South, in the same period, to $107,- 
840,688 — a difference of about sixty millions of dollars 
between the exports of the North and South, and, be- 
sides, the exports of the South are carried out in 
Northern bottoms. The commerce of the South is 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 183 

mainly carried on by Northern vessels ; and the greater 
part of the carrying trade of the South falls into 
Northern hands. Yet we of the poor, sterile North, 
are impoverished by our freedom; and gentlemen come 
here from the South and teach us political economy, 
and teach us how we can gain a decent living ! 

Let us now see which section pays the greatest pro- 
portion of the expenses of government. The revenue 
to support the General Government is derived from the 
duties on imports from foreign nations. The Revenue 
Tariif fills the United States Treasury from the receipts 
at the Custom Houses. Of course these receipts will 
show the comparative amounts paid from each section 
of the Union into the Treasury. 

In 1854, the custom-house receipts of the Free 
States amounted to $60,010,489. The same year, the 
receipts from the Slave States amounted to $5,136,969. 
The difference in favor of the North was $54,873,520 ! 
AVhat a fall was that ! The South boasts of an ex- 
tended line of sea-coast, stretching from Delaware Bay 
clear around the Gulf of Mexico, and far to the north 
along the shores of the Southern Pacific. But she has no 
trade, only a magnificent '' site " for one, which she 
lacks the enterprise to build upon. But she is going 
to have a foreign trade ! Her statesmen and political 
economists are going to do great things. She is going 
to stop buying goods at the North, going to increase 
her own tonnage, and going to do her own importing. 
But her greatness is all in prospect. It is " distance 
that lends enchantment to the view" of her commer- 
cial importance. Her commercCj trade, wealth, and 



184 NEGATIVE, III, 

political glory, are all a series of '' dissolving views," 
growing " beautiful) j less " as you approach them. 

Now, when you remember which end of the Union 
creates the preponderance of expense for the Federal 
Government — in whose behalf the wars are made — for 
Avhom the fugitive slaves are caught — who kicks up the 
majority of political rows, about Missouri compromises 
and Kansas forays — you will see in the above figures, 
a weighty reason why the North should aim at the abo- 
lition of slavery. 

Let us now consider the two sections in relation to 
manufactures. The Northern capital invested in ma- 
nufacturing is $430,240,501 ; the Southern capital is 
$95,029,709. What a contrast ! The value of the 
products of this capital of the North is $842,586,058 ; 
the value of the products of Southern manufactures is 
$165,413,027. What causes the difference ? Why, 
the South cannot be a manufacturing country, because 
of the system under which she lives. Her natural ad- 
vantages, taken in the aggregate, are as good as those 
of the North. But while Northern freemen, with their 
strong arms, have chained the steam to the car of their 
machinery, and made the lightning a motive power in 
their manufacturing operations, causing the hum of 
their spindles to break out on the morning air, in one 
harmonious song, almost from one end of Massachu- 
setts to the other, and while the spirit of freedom per- 
forates the mountain for a railroad, bridges the river, 
that it may be a path for the carrying trade of nations, 
and produces a network of railroads all over the North, 
enriching it in every direction — the system at the South 
has so impoverished that section as to afford the ter- 



BY ABRAM PRYNE, 185 

rible contrast I have presented to you. This contrast 
cannot be described in better language than that cm- 
ployed in an extract, which I will read, from a book 
whose author is a North Carolinian, and therefore, it 
may be supposed, not very likely to do injustice to his 
native State. I quote the words of Hinton Rowan 
Helper : 

" The North is the Mecca of our merchants, and to it they 
must and do make two pilgrimages per annum — one in the 
spring and one in the fall. All our commercial, mechanical, 
manufactural, and literary supplies come from there. We 
want Bibles, brooms, buckets, and books, and we go to the 
North ; we want pens, ink, paper, wafers, and envelopes, and 
we go to the North; we want shoes, hats, handkerchiefs, 
umbrellas, and pocket knives, and we go to the North ; we 
want furniture, crockery, glass-ware, and pianos, and we go 
to the North ; we want toys, primers, school-books, fashion- 
able apparel, machinery, medicines, tomb-stones, and a 
thousand other thino-s, and we sro to the North for them all. 
Instead of keeping our money in circulation at home, by 
patronizing our own mechanics, manufacturers, and laborers, 
we send it all away to the North, and there it remains; it 
never falls into our hands again. 

"In one way or another we are more or less subservient 
to the North every day of our lives. In infancy we are 
swaddled in Northern muslin ; in childhood we are humored 
with Northern gewgaws ; in youth we are instructed out of 
Northern books ; at the age of maturity we sow our ' wild 
oats' on Northern soil ; in middle life we exhaust our wealth, 
energies, and talents, in the dishonorable vocation of entail- 
ing our dependence on our children and on our children's 
children, and, to the neglect of our own interests and the 
interests of those around us, in giving aid and succor to 
every department of Northern power; in the decline of life 
wo remedy our eye-sight with Northern spectacles, and 
support our inlirmities with Northern canes ; in old age we 
are drugged with Northern physic; and, finally, when we 
diC; our inanimate bodies, shrouded in Northern cambric, 

16* 



186 NEGATIVE, III. 

are stretched upon the bier, borne to the grave in a Northern 
carriage, entombed with a Northern spade, and memorized 
with a Northern slab V 

Let us now compare the tw^o sections with regard to 
internal improvements. There are in New York 2700 
miles of railroad ; in Ohio, 2869 ; in Pennsylvania, 
2907. These three States have 1117 miles more o£ 
railroad than the whole fifteen slave States. The 
whole North has 17,855 miles of railroad ; the whole 
South, 6859 — difference in favor of the North, 10,996 
miles. These facts are some evidence of the compara- 
tive wealth and prosperity of the two sections ; and 
these Northern railroads are all above ground. The 
underground railroad now traversing the North from 
all important points, from Mason and Dixon's line to 
the Canadas, is not taken into the account in this 
estimate. It is quite probable that my opponent does 
not regard that great work of improvement with favor, 
and as I mean to be fair in this argument, I have left 
that out of my estimate. How is it in regard to 
canals ? New York and Ohio alone have 794 more 
miles of canal than the whole fifteen slave States. The 
whole North has 3682 miles of canal; the whole South, 
1116 ; difference in favor of the North, 2566. The 
North has expended for railroads, J 538,313,647 ; the 
South, $95,252,581; diiference in favor of the North, 
$443,061,066. 

Let us now consider some of the indications of 
material strength. The military force of the Slave 
States is 792,876; that of the Free States, 1,381,843. 
NoAV who makes the wars, and employs the military 
force ? We have found w^here the great bulk of the 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 187 

soldiers come from. Who causes the necessity for 
their employment ? The Florida War ; a war inflict- 
ing the most gigantic wrong upon an heroic tribe of 
Indians, because, in their affiliation with fugitive slaves, 
they helped and protected them, cost us in round 
numbers, $40,000,000. That was a war to catch 
negroes for the South. 

This military force had to be employed in the ever- 
glades of Florida to the tune of this amount to fight a 
few hundred weak Indians, who deserve the plaudits 
of the world in coming ages for the heroism and mag- 
nanimity with which they defended themselves and the 
fugitive slaves that ran away from American Chris- 
tianity and American Republicanism, and sought pro- 
tection in the bosom of their better heathenism. 

And the Mexican War came next. I only mention 
this to indicate who makes the wars. The North, as 
you see, furnishes the soldiers, and in the end pays 
the money. While upon this subject, the fact is worth 
mentioning, that, in the War of 1812, we sufi*ered the 
disgrace of having the National Capitol burned, because 
it was on Southern territory, and the militia surround- 
ing it were so busy watching their slaves, for fear they 
would run to the British army, that they could not 
beat back the little squad of men that advanced against 
them. 

Let me now give you some statistics with regard to 
the Post-Office. The total amount of money collected 
for postage in the North in 1855 was $4,670,725, cost 
of transportation for the North was $2,608,295, so 
that the surplus paid by the North over the cost of 
sending her mail matter was $2,012,430. The total 



188 NEGATIVEj III. 

amount of postage collected in the South was $1,553,198. 
The cost of transportation was $2,385,953. So 
that the South has failed to pay her postage by 
$1,632,763, which the North has to pay for her. The 
rich planters of the South, with the system under which 
they live, have to take from the Northern end of the 
Post-Office bag the money to pay their own postage. 

The reason of this is found in the fact that she has 
a population of 4,000,000 blacks and a white popula- 
tion of 512,882 that can neither read or write, out of an 
aggregate population of 9,612,979 ; making nearly half 
of her adult inhabitants who could not read a letter if 
one was sent them. Besides she is so destitute of in- 
ternal improvements, and her roads are so bad, that it 
costs far more to transport her lean mail bags over the 
same distance than it does the plethoric mails of the 
North ! 

What are the figures with regard to schools ? In 
the schools of the North there are 2,769,901 pupils ; in 
the schools of the South 581,861 pupils — a difference 
of 2,000,000 in favor of the North. The schoolmaster 
is present in the North, and has been for some time ; 
and while he shall continue to be with this number of 
pupils under his care, it will take such missionizing as 
the gentleman gives us here, a long time to convert the 
North to Southern ethics, political economy, religion, 
or politics. 

Let us see the figures in regard to newspapers, as 
furnishinni: a standard of the intellio;encc of the two 
sections. In the North there is a weekly and daily 
circulation of 334,146,281 copies ; in the South, 
$81,038,693. 



BYABRAMPRYNE. 189 

In general literary intelligence the contrast between 
a free and slaveholding society is yet more striking. 
The South is so meagrely supplied with books that it 
seems almost ungenerous to reveal her literary poverty. 
But my opponent has, by his onslaught upon the Free 
States, invited this searching expose ; and his slave- 
holding society shall have the full benefit of the statis- 
tical argument. 

The South has 695 public libraries in here domain 
of thought. The North contains 14,911. These li- 
braries of the South contain 649,577 volumes. The 
number of volumes in the public libraries of the North 
swells to the respectable number of 3,888,234, a con- 
trast of over 3,000,000 volumes ! An immense major- 
ity of these books in Southern libraries were written 
by Northern men, printed in Northern printing offices, 
bound by Northern hands, and sold by the Northern 
publishers. The North has opened the heart of her 
literature to the inspiration of the spirit of freedom. 
Her works of fiction, her essays on government, her 
religious publications (saving those of a few fossilized 
denominational publishing societies, who emasculate 
the gospel to make it palatable to slaveholders), all 
breathe the spirit of liberty. The harp of the North, 
touched by the inspired fingers of her Whittier, her 
Lowell and her Longfellow, fills the land with the 
strains of her songs of freedom. Litei'ature cannot 
live in chains. The muses take their flight from a land 
of whips and fetters, and the South gropes on in the 
gloom of literary night, for fear the sun of intelligence 
will reveal her crimes against humanity. 

And, now, we come to the churches. Surely, the 



190 NEGATIVE, III., 

pious South must be ahead of us in this respect, if we 
are to take the Parson's statistics, or rather if we are 
to take his exhortations and assertions. The total 
value of the church property in the North is $67,793,- 
477 ; of the South, $21,674,581. But, perhaps, the 
balance will be made up on the amount given to the 
Bible cause. Surely, the South will be ahead of us 
there ! The Bible is presented in this debate as the 
sheet-anchor of slavery. If my opponent is to be 
taken as authority, almost every page of it is filled with 
sanctions of slavery. It is presented as the great 
manual of the peculiar institution. Of course then it 
is in high favor in the South. We have a right to ex- 
pect to find it in each slave cabin, and to find each 
slave pouring over its pages, to reconcile himself to the 
scourging, branding, starving, and robbing inflicted by 
its authority. When his hog and hominy fail, he can 
fill himself with Pro-Slavery texts. When badly 
whipped, he can find consolation for his smarting back 
in its patriarchal precedents ; and when his wife and 
children are stolen and sold, he can bind up his broken 
heart with its sacred leaves, and learn submission from 
its divine sanction of the villany from which he sufi'ers. 
Of course, slaveholders will give largely to circulate 
the Bible. Let us see. In 1855, the North gave to 
the Bible cause, $319,677; the South, $68,677— only 
$251,000 difference between the amounts contributed 
to the Bible cause. Yet Mr. Brownlow is going to get 
up a missionary effect in the South to circulate Bibles 
at the North ! 

But perhaps the balance is made up on the tract 
cause. The North paid to the Tract Society $131,972, 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 191 

the South $24,725 ; and yet the Tract Society, I blush 
to say, at its last annual meeting, in the face of this 
beggarly account of Southern contributions, toadied to 
the South so largely in New York city a few months 
since, as to excite the indignation of all high-minded 
Christian men. I know that these words which I am 
using will make me unpopular with a large portion of 
my audience, but I came here to tell God's truth, and 
you shall have it. 

For missionary purposes for the year 1855, the 
North contributed $502,174, the South $101,934; a 
difference of only $400,240 in missionary contribu- 
tions. But perhaps the South will make up on the 
Colonization cause. The scheme of takinor the free 
negroes at the South, and sending them to Africa, must 
certainly be her pet, for she wants to get rid of them, 
and she has a pious regard for the Christianization of 
the negro. Let us see how she supports this cause by 
her pocket nerve. 

The North contributed for Colonization $51,930 ; 
the South $27,618. The North contributes double 
that given by the South. I do not mention this as a 
compliment to the North. I only give it as one of a 
series of facts tending to show the comparative wealth 
and readiness to give, as existing in the two sections. 
For, instead of contributing myself, or encouraging 
any other person to contribute to the Colonization 
cause, I would far rather contribute Sharp's rifles, 
pistols, and bayonets — in order that the negro might 
be defended in possessing his freedom on our ovm soil, 
and living among us, where he has a right to live. 

Now, what say you with reference to the compara- 



192 NEGATIVE, III. 

tive pauperism, and the comparative criminality, and 
the comparative virtue, and the comparative benevo- 
lence, and the comparative Christianity, of the two 
sections of the Union, as shown by these statistics. 
What makes the difference? What, but the incubus 
of American slavery, that has settled down over the 
fair clime of the South, and has sent the virus of its 
poison into the life-blood of her native elements of 
strength, and improvement, and progress ? But these 
figures do not at all give the whole view of this ques- 
tion, for who can estimate what has been lost to the 
world of mind by the suppression of genius, resulting 
from the system that prevails in the South ? Who can 
tell of the glorious thoughts that have been crushed, 
of the bright intellects that have been ruined, of the 
great souls that have withered away in the prison-house 
of obscurity, who ought to have been in the world like 
Douglass and other great minds among the colored 
men, leading their own countrymen out of darkness, by 
the light that flashes from their brilliant intellects, and 
by the zeal of their efi'orts for human advancement ? 
Who can estimate the loss of moral power from this 
source ! Who can measure the loss of power to convert 
the world to righteousness, and decency and morality, 
and hasten on the dawn of a better day for humanity ! 
These things cannot be computed by figures. They 
are beyond the province of the mathematician. No 
man can tell what has been lost to the world in morals 
and intelligence by the institution of American slavery. 
Slavery disgraces us before the civilized world, not 
only by this destruction of our elements of material 
strength, but by the rufiian element that it introduces 



BY A B R A M P R Y N E . 193 

into our politics, by the manner in which it degrades 
our statesmanship, by the scenes that brute force, as- 
suming that might makes right, enacts in our Senate 
Chambers, and by the efforts that it makes to suppress 
freedom of debate, and crush out the expression of free 
opinion. 

And, gentlemen, I cannot forget in this connection, 
the glorious Charles Sumner, who with an intellect 
towering loftily, the depth of which has not yet been 
measured, and with a moral character as stainless as 
the garb of an angel, was stricken down for having he- 
roically performed a glorious duty to God and human- 
ity — stricken down by a ruffian hand, and his blood 
stainino; the floor of the Senate chamber. Gentlemen, 

CD ' 

this is the spirit that slavery breathes into the politics 
of our nation ; this is the manor in which it conducts 
discussion — this is the disgrace into which it brings 
us before the civilized world ! 

I ask in view of these things — while Alexander of 
Russia is settinsi; free his serfs — while the African 
princes themselves who haA^e held slaves, are giving 
them their liberty — while Turkey herself is moving in 
the cause of freedom, and the Ottoman Empire feels 
the impulses of humanity — I ask in the name of heaven, 
if it is not time we should shake off the disgrace of 
being the last among the nations of the earth to recog 
nize the rights of common humanity, and give man his 
freedom because he is a man. 

Gentlemen, in the name of these great principles, I 

demand the abolition of American slavery. I cannot 

consent, nor can you consent, nor can the civilized 

world long consent, that Republicanism, in its glorious 

17 



194 NEGATIVE, III. 

experiment here in the New World, shall be all the 
time in danger of becoming a failure, and of being 
wrecked on this terrible rock of wrong. I cannot, as 
an American citizen, consent that tyrants who shake 
their bloody sceptres from across the water, should 
laugh at us living under a government more tju^annical 
upon 3,000,000 of men than the worst European des- 
potisms. I cannot consent, so far as my poor powers 
are concerned, to the perpetuation of this system, which 
is our shame before the civilized world. In the noon 
of the nineteenth century, when the impulses of the 
human soul are grasping after a larger freedom, when 
the spirit of the age is pushing out towards an enlarge- 
ment of the area of mind — when the very breezes 
around us are instinct with the influences of intellectual 
and moral progress — this horrid incubus of slavery 
settles down upon the bosom of the mightiest, and what 
might be, the noblest nation on earth, and exerts its 
crushing power on the elements of intellectual and 
moral and spiritual and political strength; and it is 
time that it should be abolished — that it should die. 

It is time that we were done with the frippery of 
this little, pettifogging textual argument. It is time 
that we were done with its taunts and jeers, and sneers 
and retorts. It is time that we should march up to 
this question in a spirit that harmonizes with the 
gravity of its issues, and argue it, before the civilized 
world, in the light of the great principles which it in- 
volves. It is time that we should cease to be jesters 
and jokers. It is time that we should cease to play 
the harlequin, and should take the position of 77ien in 
morals and in politics, arguing this cause on the grand 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 195 

principles that give dignity to tins debate — principles 
■worthy of this audience "we address, and of the question 
we discuss. 

And, gentlemen, I notify you, that hereafter I shall 
not descend from these high, broad grounds, to meet 
sneers and taunts and gibes, and harlequin grimaces, 
that may come to me in the shape of any language that 
is read here. I have a greater purpose and a nobler 
cause, and while I may for a moment turn aside for a 
good-natured retort, I shall not spend time in picking 
up the petty quirks and flings scattered loosely through 
this argumentation. 

I demand to enter the merits of this question, and I 
ask of my opponent that he shall give us the gist of 
this debate, and put it in form and shape to be met, 
for I am here to meet it, to question it, and, if possible, 
to show the matchless wickedness of the slave system, 
and defend the cause of freedom before the civilized 
world. I trust that in the succeeding evenings of this 
debate, we shall be able to lift its tone out of these 
comparatively low grounds, where it has rested hereto- 
fore, and give it the altitude which it merits, as the 
gravest, and broadest, and profoundest question of the 
age. 

[Mr. Pryne desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the 
*' Impending Crisis," by Helper, for assistance in preparing the 
above speech.] 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?^' 

Affirmative, IY. — By W. G. Brownlow. 

An argument, if not the argument of Abolitionism, 
is, that men cannot hold property in man. The claim 
is a vile heresy — its consummation a wicked and terrible 
usurpation. I might content myself with saying, that 
the institution of slavery is as old as the oldest of 
human institutions — is recognized by the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments — and the right of man to 
hold property in his fellow man, is taught from the 
opening to the close of the Bible. 

I might content myself with the assertion that, even 
among the Hebrews, the legislation of Moses provided 
for the event in which a Jew is constrained to sell him- 
self through poverty, and to acknowledge the right of 
'property in liim by his purchaser. I might content 
myself with saying, as I now do, that Christians of un- 
doubted piety, in the days of Christ and the Apostles 
oumed slaves, and their rights of property in them were 
recognized by the Saviour and the Apostles. 

In France, Spain, Portugal, and England, slavery 
was established by legislation at one time or another, 
and slaves were recognized as property. Slavery, in 
its widest and broadest acceptation, was known to exist 
in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and the queen was her- 
self the oumer of slaves. And slaves were protected as 
property by the Common Law of England down to the 

(19G) 



AFFIRMATIVE, IV. — EY W. G. EROWNLOW. 197 

time of James II. Fifty years after Lord Mansfield's 
speech in the celebrated " Sommersett Case" of slavery, 
Lord Stowell decided the right of a master to his 
slave, absconding, and his right in him as loropei'ty. 
Lord Stowell was at the time in correspondence with 
Judge Story, of Massachusetts, sent him a copy of 
his decision, and asked his opinion about it. No man 
of intelligence will doubt the anti-slavery feelings and 
proclivities of Judge Story. Here is an extract from 
his answer to the British Lord : 

" I have read, with great attention, your judgment in the 
slave case. Upon the fullest consideration which I have 
been able to give the subject, I entirely concur in your 
views. If I had been called upon to pronounce a judgment 
in a like case, I should have certainly arrived at the same 
result. '^ 

In France they had a similar system of slavery, 
calling the slaves bondsmen of the estate, because they 
belonged to the landed estates, and were usually sold 
with them as ])ro]perty. This species of slavery con- 
tinued in France until 1779, after our independence. 

As it regards Spain, any one reading her literature 
for the eighteenth century, will find that her authors 
never introduce a tale of romance, but what some 
Moorish or negro slave comes up as the inmate of the 
household, and ])roperty of the hero ! 

Turning to our own country, slaves are protected as 
froperty by the Constitution of the United States. 
What is this protection? The question is answered 
on page 671 of 16th Peters, in these words ; 

'' I cannot perceive how any one can doubt that the remedy 
given in the Constitution, if, indeed, it give any remedy 

17* 



198 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

without legislation, was designed to be a peaceful one ; a 
remedy sanctioned by judicial authority; a remedy guarded 
by the forms of law. But the inquiry is reiterated, is not 
the master entitled to his properti/? I answer that he is. 
Ills rijlit is (jiiarantied hy the Constitution ; and the most 
summary means for its enforcement is found in the Act of 
Conoress. And neither the State nor its citizens can obstruct 
the prosecution of this right. '^ 

This was Judge M'Lean's language, one of the 
minority of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in the Dred Scott case. That entire court, though 
differing in some respects, concurred, man for man, 
that the rights of the South are guarantied in slaves 
as property J by the Constitution ! 

Slavery, outside of the Bible, is the creature of the 
common law of England, in which country it existed, 
and was protected by the common and the statute 
law, as far back as the days of Queen Elizabeth, who, 
as I have already stated, herself owned slaves. Our 
ancestors brought the laws and institutions of England 
to this continent, as their birth-right, and hence sla- 
very was the common law of the thirteen original colo- 
nies. At the time of the American Revolution, it was 
the common law of the western continent. But it is 
just to the truth of history to say, that slavery was 
forced upon the thirteen original colonies, as the com- 
mon law, against the urgent remonstrances of the 
Soutliern portion, the North acquiescing most cheer- 
fully! How, then, can an Abolitionist assert that 
slavery is not recognized by our Constitution, and that 
slaves are not property? 

But I am aware of the difficulty of driving histori- 
cal facts into the heads of Northern Abolitionists and 



BY W. a. BROWNLOW. 199 

of New England clergymen, as to the slavery or anti- 
slavery record of this or any other country — this or 
any other age. Upon the suhject of slavery in this 
country, they "stick it out with stomach stout," unless 
the facts can be found in the Bible. The [N^ew Testa- 
ment beg-ins Anno Domini, and does not come down 
to the formation of our Federal Constitution, the days 
of Washington, Franklin, and others, and to this, our 
day and generation. 

Abolitionism asserts that the early founders of this 
Republic were opposed to slavery. This I deny, and 
denounce as utterly untrue. I quote from the speech 
of Theodore Parker, delivered at the "New England 
Anti-Slavery Convention," in May, 1858. That speech 
appears in pamphlet form, "copyright secured." On 
page 11, the author says : 

'' It is now well known that many of the leading men in 
the conventions, Federal as well as State, were hostile to 
slaverv. I need only mention Franklin, W^ashington, Madi- 
son, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock/' 

The very reverse of what this champion of Aboli- 
tionism says, "is now well known" to be true. Let 
us look into the facts of history. 

1. Washington and Franklin put the compact I 
have been dwelling upon, the Fugitive Slave Laiv, 
into the Constitution. Perhaps I ought not to dis- 
close this fact until Edward Everett has done with 
his oration and his Mount Vernon Fund, as it will stop 
all contributions by anti-slavery men ! 

2. George Washington & Co. divided the territory 
of the Union, when the great division was made — 



200 AFFIRM ATIVEj IV. 

all north of the Ohio to be free ; all south of that 
slave. 

3. "Washington signed Acts of Congress admitting 
Slave States into the Union. John Adams did the 
same, when they both had the power to veto them, 
and knew that Congress could not take them up and 
pass them by a two-thirds vote ! 

4. Washington, Franklin, Rufus King, and 
others, prohibited, in the Federal Constitution, the 
abolition of the African slave-trade before the year 
1808 — the memorials requesting them to do so, all 
coming from the Nortli! 

5. And John Adams signed the Act of Congress 
which repealed the Wihnot Proviso ordinance (orga- 
nizing the North-western Territory as an anti-slavery 
Territory), organizing the Alabama and Mississippi 
Territories as /Slave Territories! 

6. Washington, Franklin, and Alexander Ha- 
milton put into the Constitution the provision provi- 
ding for the three-fifth representation of slaves in the 
House of Representatives, by which the South now 
gains nearly thirty Representatives ! 

7. Thomas Jefferson negotiated the purchase of 
the Louisiana Territory, a slaveholding and slave- 
abounding territory, larger than the then whole ter- 
ritory of the United States ; and, in the treaty with 
France, guarantied the preservation and protection of 
''slave property. "" 

Fifty other facts of a similar character, and equally 
as strong as these, could be cited, to prove what an 
untruth Abolitionism utters, when it asserts that the 
early founders of our Republic were opposed to sla- 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 201 

very. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Mon- 
roe, were all taken from one State, and made Presi- 
dents by Northern votes, because they were slaveJiolders, 
and were supposed to be friendly to the slave-trade, 
by which so many men at the North were making 
fortunes ! 

Now, these Southern slaveholding Presidents were 
Norther rh made. Washington was elected and re- 
elected without opposition. Jeflferson was re-elected 
by an immense majority, and both times beat Northern 
men by getting Northern votes. Madison and Mon- 
roe were elected more by Northern than Southern 
votes. 

The existence of slavery in ancient society, from 
time immemorial, is an unquestionable fact, that, to 
stand here and argue, would be a reflection on the 
intelligence of this audience. But the ascertainment 
of the numbers of slaves owned and sold in the differ- 
ent quarters of the earth, and in different ages, is of 
great importance, for it touches the question of slavery 
at all points. I cannot be expected to enter into 
details, however, and will content myself with saying 
that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS Were sold in the slave- 
marts of Phoenicia, Assyria, Egypt, Judea, Greece, 
Italy, Germany, Britain, and Gaul. Out of these 
millions, none ever rose with indignity and strength to 
retaliate on their purchasers. 

Ancient society, like Southern society, consisted of 
freemen and slaves ; and the number of the latter is 
connected with its constitution, its spirit, and its cha- 
racter. Ancient writers tell us that they were very 
numerous in Athens, and the cities which, like her, 



202 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

prosecuted the arts of industry and trade. The cen- 
sus of Demetrius returned for Athens 20,000 native- 
born citizens, 10,000 resident foreigners, and 400,000 
slaves! Corinth had 460,000 slaves! -^gina, a 
rocky strip as barren as the cold North, with its one 
hundred and fifty superficial miles, had 470,000 
slaves ! The slaves in Attica were mostly owned by 
individuals, some owning three hundred, six hundred, 
and one thousand, whom they hired out and worked on 
their farms. The Athenian government owned 200,000 
slaves, and employed them in working the mines and 
prosecuting works of internal improvement. 

This body of condensed testimonies and select proofs, 
shows that slavery found its basis in the organization 
of primitive society ; and in my several lectures I have 
traced it up the stream of time to God's awful mysteries 
which enshroud the origin of society ! Whether I have 
turned to a long line of monuments, historical, poetical, 
or philosophical, sacred or human, or to codes and 
creeds, I have everywhere found the primitive existence 
of slavery — just such slavery as exists in America — 
none better — most of it worse ! 

Voices from the east, and voices from the west ; 
voices from the precincts of Eden, and from the sum- 
mits of smoking Sinai ; voices from the dark and 
gloomy depths of antiquity, and from the glare of 
refined and elevated civilization ; voices of inspired 
men from the sanctuaries of God, and voices of bad 
men from the precincts of cruelty and degradation ; 
voices from every tongue, and every nation that lived 
upon the tide of time past, proclaim the consistent. 



BY W. a. BIIOWNLOW. 203 

primative, heathen, and Christian fact of original 
slavery ! 

A grand law of God in nature adapted the several 
physical characters and constitutions, as well as the 
respective complexions of the races, to the localities in 
which they were designed to dwell. To the white race, 
the descendants of Japhet^ the northern regions of the 
earth were given. To Sliem and his descendants, the 
copper-colored race, the middle regions or temperate 
clime, north of the equator, was allotted. But to Ham 
and his race was given the burning South. 

But who did Ham marry ? This is an important 
question in this age of slavery agitation and excitement 
about the origin of the races, and their several colors. 
Ham evidently got his wife from the race of Cain. 
Comm,entators generally agree, that in Genesis vi. 2, 
"sons of God" mean those of the race of Setli ; 
and that "the daughters of men" imply the females 
of the race of Cain. The word "fair" in our version, 
applied to these females, does not warrant the conclu- 
sion that they were ivJtite women^ or that they were 
even of a light complexion. It is translated from the 
Hebrew tovoth, being in the feminine plural, from tov, 
and only expresses the idea of what may seem good and 
excellent to the beholder ; it expresses no quality of 
complexion or beauty, beyond what may exist in the 
mind of the beholder. 

Cain had been driven out a degenerate, degraded, 
deteriorated vagabond. As soon as these races inter- 
married, God became displeased with them — determined 
to destroy man from the earth — avowing that the 
" wickedness of man had become great in the earth." 



204 AFFIRMATIVE; IV. 

We have no proof that the race has ever improved. 
All the sons of Ham ^vere born after the flood, and for 
generations afterwards thej kept up the name Cain, 
Cainite, Canaan. These variations will not be noticed 
in a language so remote as ours, but linguists and com- 
mentators trace them all back to their root, the original 
of Caifi. The curse of slavery was imposed on the 
descendants of Ham, because of this marriage, and 
they were subjected to be bought and sold. The very 
name Cain, signifies '•^ one purchased.'' 

The descendants of Ham were black, and the black 
man of Africa is of that descent. "And the Lord set 
a mark upon Cain." This " mar^" was a black skin. 
Since language was first used to designate the ideas of 
men, black has been applied to sin and wickedness. In 
the book of Nalium, chapter 2d, it is said in reference 
to this race, '' The faces of them all gather blackness.'''' 
The descendants of Ham were black ivJien born. His 
wife, of the race of Cain, was a negro zvench, inheriting 
Cain's '''■mark," and that mark was a black skin. The 
wife of Ham w^as by the name of Namali, and the de- 
scendants of Ham perpetuated her name in the family, 
to their latest generation. The name of this negro 
woman was handed down in Scripture, for obvious 
reasons, while the name of the wife of Noah remains 
a mystery ! And it was before the flood that the 
degenerate sons of Seth fell in love with the black 
daughters of the race of Cain. And the degenerate 
Sethites of New England, when they meet with our 
Southern Cainites, illustrate the habits of their anti- 
deluvian predecessors ! Abram is a negro name, and 
thereby hangs a tale ! 



BY W . G . B R W N L W . 205 

Abolitionists take the ground that the precepts of 
the Bible are diametrically opposed to slavery ; and 
that the slave-trade is only evil, and evil continually. 
I have not so learned the precepts of the Bible ; and 
as for the African slave-trade, the revival of "which I 
do not advocate, and have already denounced as inracy^ 
I am not sure that it has not always been a blessing, 
instead of a curse to the African race. 

The 28th chapter of Deuteronomy sets forth the 
blessings and curses promised the Jews, and, I may 
add, all mankind, for obedience or disobedience to the 
laws of God. At the 68th verse they were told that 
they should again be sent to Egypt and exposed for 
%ale — that no man should buy them, or that there 
should not be buj^ers enough, as the passage may be 
read, to give them the benefit of being slaves — deemed 
a great blessing, as it alone assured protection and 
sustenance. This was all verified at the time Jerusalem 
was sacked by Titus ; and in Egypt, as well as many 
other places, thousands of the Hebrew captives were 
exposed, as slaves, for sale, and thousands of them died 
of starvation because jjiirchasers could not be found. 
The Romans, always in the market when slaves were 
to be sold, would not have these Hebrew captives, 
because they were too stubborn and degraded for their 
use. Their numbers, compared with the number of 
purchasers in the market were so great, that the price 
was only nominal, when a sale was effected ; and thou- 
sands starved to death, because purchasers could not 
be had at any price. 

This same incident happened to all the Jews, wdio 
were freemen in Spain, during the reign of Ferdinand 
18 



206 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

and Isabella, when 800,000 Jews were driven from 
that kingdom in one day, half of whom famished to 
death, because they could not find masters, though anx- 
ious to do so, and capitalists were purchasing slaves, 
where they could be suited in the quality. What are 
the teachings of the Bible in this case ? It predicted 
this, and its teachings on this subject favor the institu- 
tion of slavery. 

It may be urged by Abolitionism, that this was a 
curse inflicted upon the Jews for their disobedience, and 
murder of Christ. Such a peculiar relation of facts, 
and state of bondage, have not been confined to the 
Jews alone. In 1376, the Florentines, then a travel- 
ling, trading, or commercial people, possessed such 
infirmities that Christianity was scouted by them, and 
murder and robbery became mere pastime. The sur- 
rounding governments, and the Church, whose patience 
were almost exhausted by their pillage, delivered them 
over to slavery, which was hailed as a great blessing 
by such as met with purchasers; others were 
punished with death. In the days of Walsingham, in 
England, a large proportion of the traders were of the 
same people, while freemen were liable to be put 
to death by any one, and their effects legally seized 
upon ; in bondage they were protected ; and they sought 
slavery as a remedy — only the better classes finding 
purchasers. This was in CImstian England, in accord- 
ance with what was then understood to be the precepts 
of the Bible. 

In 1830, John and Iiichard Lander were sent out 
to explore certain parts of Africa by the " London 
African Association." They reported that their hearts 



BY W . G . BROW N L W . 207 

sickened at the contemplation of the scenes of horror 
they met with, and added: — " It is to be regretted that 
since the abolition of the slave-trade in Africa, slaves 
have become of little value in that country. That tbe 
Africans in many places have returned to sacrifice and 
cannibalism, is also true, and a cause of deep sorrow 
to the philanthropist ; but considering the state and 
condition of the savages, there is no alternative but a 
revival of the slave-trade. The slave there, if he can- 
not be sold, is at all times liable to be put to death, 
either for purposes of food, or of thinning their ranks." 

Now, suppose we buy, and then turn them loose 
there, they will at once become the subjects of slavery, 
because slavery affords them protection, as long as 
their savage owners are able to afford them the means 
of living. Let us present this state of facts to our 
Christian philanthropists of the North, and ask them 
to apply their much talked of golden rule, of doing to 
others as they would have others do unto us ; and, in 
case the slave-trade with Africa had not been abolished, 
what would they deem it their duty to do for the pre- 
sent, practical, and lasting benefit of these poor victims, 
whom the misguided, false, and misdirected sympathy 
of the world has thus consigned to sacrifice and death ? 

So recently as 1851, our sympathies were excited by 
an account published to the world, of an African chief- 
tain and an extensive slave-holder, who, during the 
previous year, finding himself cut off from a market 
for his surplus of slaves on the western coast, in con- 
quence of the abolition of the slave-trade with Europe 
and America, put to death 3000 whom he could no 
longer feed, or profitably employ ! The trade with 



208 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

Arabia, Egypt, and the Barbary States, was going on, 
and was lawful ; but these markets were not sufficient 
to drain off the surplus numbers on the western coast, 
and hence, such as were not suited for food, were in- 
discriminately slaughtered ! While the slave-trade 
was tolerated, even cannibalism was checked up, from 
the fact that one negro would bring in exchange ten 
times the amount of provisions to be found in the ser- 
ving up of his carcass, and a greater variety at that. 

The blood of these 3000 massacred negroes now 
cries from the soil of Western Africa unto the Aboli- 
tionists of England and America, who enacted laws 
prohibiting the slave-trade, in the following eloquent, 
touching, and as I think, appropriate terms : 

"Gentlemen, apply, oh! apply to suffering and degraded 
Africa, tlie Bible doctrine of the golden rule, and relieve us 
poor African slaves from starvation, massacre, and death. 
Come, oh ! come ; buy us from our savage owners, who, as 
cannibals cat us up, or thin our ranks by indiscriminate 
slaughter, when we become so numerous as to be a burthen 
to them. Come, oh I come; buy us, that we may be your 
slaves, cither in the West India Islands, or among the cotton, 
tobacco, rice, and sug-ar plantations of America, and have 
some chance to learn that religion under which you prosper 1 
We prefer the Southern overseer's task, with enough to eat 
and to wear, to starvation and death in our native land ! 
Then, in the language of your Bible, ' we shall build up the 
old wastes,' 'raise up the former desolations,' and 'repair 
the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.' ' And 
strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of 
the alien shall be your ploughmen, and your wine-dressers.' 
' Then ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord; men shall 
call you the ministers of ouu God.' " 

The Church of Christ, did, at all times, during its 
early ages, consider the existence of slavery, and the 



BYW. G. BROWN LOW. 209 

holding of slaves, compatible with a religions profession 
and the practice of Christian duties. No other proof 
is necessary on this point, than the sermons of St. Paul 
and St. Peter. These sermons will be found in Corin- 
thians, Ephesians, Colossians I., Timothy, Titus, Phi- 
lemon, and 1st Peter. These Scriptures distinctly 
teach the doctrine of the Christian Church ; and no 
doctrine therein taught stands out in bolder relief than 
the lawfulness of otvning and dealing in slaves. 

Some suppose Abolitionism, as held in England and 
America, an ism of modern origin. Not so, however; 
it is as old as the Council of Nice^ and was taught in 
the year 325, when Constantino was Emperor. 

The "illustrious predecessors " of our New England 
Abolitionists, were the Grnostics and Manicheans of 
Asia Minor. These fanatics denied the lawfulness of 
marriage, and contended for our New England theory 
of " Free Love ;" they enacted a prohibitory wine-law, 
similar to our " Maine Liquor Law ;" they required by 
law, all men to enter religious societies, and attend 
church, as did the " Blue Laws " of Connecticut ; they 
decried the lawfulness of slavery; they denounced 
slave-holders as violating the laws of God and man, 
just as our Abolitionists do ; they aided slaves in de- 
serting their owners, just as the officers of our " under- 
ground railroads " do ; and in all things they assumed 
to be more holy, more j^eifect, and more spiritual, than 
other men, just as do the unmitigated Anti-Slavery 
hypocrites of our New England States ! 

The criticisms of the gentleman, touching the terms 
servant and slaves, lead me, now while the subject is on 
18* 



210 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

my mind, to notice these terms, altlioiigli I consider I 
was sufficiently explicit in a former speech. 

The English words servant^ to serve, and service, ser- 
ving, &c., have descended into our language from the 
Latin word servus, A slave ; and these words, when 
first introduced into the language, as distinctly carried 
with them the idea of slavery, as does now any term 
we can employ, and will continue to do so wherever 
the English language and slavery prevail. In no slave- 
holding country has the word servant ever heen applied 
to a freeman as a legitimate term of description ; but 
in non-slaveholding communities, these words are oc- 
casionally used in a different sense, but in every in- 
stance erroneously ; because they are without adhe- 
rence to their derivation and analogy. These words, 
when found in the present authorized version of the 
Scriptures, are in the majority of instances translated 
from some Greek word that included the idea of slavery. 
I could give examples in which errors exist, in this par- 
ticular, in our translation of the Christian Scriptures ; 
such as John xviii., 36. Mark xiv., 54. John xviii., 18. 
Hebrews iii., 5. He that seeks the truth must keep in 
mind the distinction between the different terms in our 
Scriptures, called by the same name, '•'servants,'' and 
not suffer his mind to be influenced by any bias which 
has been produced by other agencies. 

St. Paul commences his epistle to the Romans, to 
the Philippians, and to Titus, with the nppellation of 
servajit. In the first case he calls himself the servant 
and apostle of Christ. In the last instance, he terms 
himself the servant of God, and apostle of Jesus 
Christ. Peter, in his second epistle, styles himself a 



BY W . a . B R W N L W . 211 

servant and apostle ; Jude, the servant of Christ. In 
all these instances the word means slave^ as any lin- 
guist will testify, and is used comraendatively, hut 
figuratively, to signify their entire devotcdness to the 
cause in which they are engaged, and to their Leader, 
as a good slave is to his master. And it is proper to 
remark, that the professing Christian is indebted to the 
institution of slavery, which w^as approved by the 
inspired Apostles, for the lesson of humanity and 
devotedness here so plainly taught him ; and without 
which, perhaps, he never could have been taught this 
duty, in these particulars, so pertinently and clearly. 
The humility and devotedness of the Christian are il- 
lustrated by the institution of slavery, as set forth in 
John XV., 20 : "Remember the words that I said unto 
you, the servant (or slave) is not greater than his 

Lord." 

But, in this connection, the inquiry naturally occurs, 
how happened it that St. Pnul found it necessary to in- 
form Timothy that the law forbade the stealing or en- 
ticing away of other men's slaves ? By consulting his 
epistles to the Gentile churches, it will be seen that 
there had grown up among them some new and villan- 
ous "Free Soil" doctrines, which his office as an 
apostle made it his duty to reprehend in unmistakable 
terms. These doctrines were the abolition of marriage, 
and the abolition of slavery, as will be seen by examin- 
ino- the 7th chapter of first Corinthians. Some of the 
Gentile Churches advocated the doctrine that, if a man 
or woman of the faith married to one not of the faith, 
that said marriage should be abolished ; so also, that a 
slave of the faith should be set free, and especially by 



212 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

a believing master ; so a]so, the bellevlDg cliild should 
be discharged from the authority of the unbelieving 
parent. The promulgation of these doctrines filled 
society with disorder where the apostles labored, and 
the Church with confusion. 

In his instructions to Timothy, St. Paul complains 
of the Neiv England doctrines, taught by Hymeneus 
and Alexander, two unmitigated "freedom-shriekers," 
and denounces them as hlasphemous. What were they ? 
The most odious of them was the abolition of slavery, 
and for which he "delivered unto Satan" these two 
reckless anti-slavery champions, as he would my 
revereyid opponent, if he were here, and could hear his 
arguments. It is notorious, moreover, that St. Paul 
in his instructions to Timothy, to Titus, to the Oolos- 
sians, to the Ephesians, &c., denounced the Aboli- 
tionists of his day, and warned his ministerial brethren 
against them. Consistency of character, to say nothing 
about his independence in avowing his sentiments, 
warrants the conclusion, that in all his sermons to the 
masses, and such as were not published, he kept up a 
fierce fire upon these anti-slavery men, warning the 
common people, including the slaves themselves, against 
their wicked and seductive influence. 

I have already established the doctrine and action of 
the Church, as connected with the subject of slavery, 
by learned writers in the three or four first centuries ; 
men who were renowned for their piety, and claimed 
to have been governed by the immediate teaching of 
Christ and his apostles. During every century, suffice 
it to say, from the crucifixion of Christ down to the 
present time, by far the greatest portion of the world 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 213 

has been flooded with slavery and slaves ; and, In all 

of these various portions of the earth, the slave trade was 

carried on. According to Bede, Britain furnished 

other nations with slaves, as far back as the year 577. 

And in the midst of all the feeling of rivalship between 

the Jews, the Pagans, and the Christians — and, in 

truth, between some of the different Christian sects, as 

to their systems of religion, they all agreed more or 

less in the right to own and trade in slaves. They 

difiered in their opinions as to ivho should hold slaves, 

and they regulated the traffic by laws very different in 

their character. The law of the Roman empire, in 

force throughout Italy and Sicily during the fifth 

century, enjoined that slaves Vfho were Christians could 

not be held by those who were not of the same faith. 

In India, the creditor could take the children of the 

debtor, and keep them as his 'property, and as his slaves, 

until the debt was paid. Among the Gentiles this 

same right was in existence, with the further provision, 

that the child could be subjected to perpetual slavery. 

I repeat a sentiment I have already avowed and 

argued, that it is a great popular error, which supposes 

all of our species to be born equals. I do not believe 

one word of it. It involves the absurd proposition that 

each one also possesses the same faculties and mind, 

and to the same extent. Through the whole animal 

world, as with man, the amount of mental power each 

one possesses, is in exact proportion to the development 

of the nervous system and animal structure. The 

highest grade of development is found among the Cau- 

cassian species of man. Physiologists assert that the 

African exhibits, in maturity, the imperfect brain of a 



214 AFFIRMATIVE. IV. 

Caucasian /tef MS, two months before birth. The Malay 
and Indian exhibit tlie same at a period nearer birth ; 
while the Mongolian, that of the Caucasian infant 
after birth. The beard, the attribute of a full maturity 
among men, largest in the Caucasian, does not exist 
among the lower grades of the African. Color is also 
found the darkest where the development is the least 
perfect, and the most distant from the Caucasian. 
Hence, a particular tribe of Arabs, on the banks of the 
Jordan, from their intermarriages among blood relations, 
have so degenerated in intellect, as to have become as 
black as negroes ! And it is a well-known physiological 
fact, that Caucasian parents too nearly related, exhibit 
offspring of the Mongolian type. There is truth in the 
ancient adage — "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
and the children's teeth are on edge." Whether, 
therefore, we view the tribes of ocean, earth, or air, 
we behold a regular gradation of power and rules, from 
man down to the atom, demonstrating the truth of the 
lines by Pope : 

"Whether with reason or with instinct blest, 
All enjoy that power that suits them best.'' 

"Order is heaven's first law; and this confess'd, 
Some are, and must be greater than the rest." 

A few remarks upon certain issues he raised last 
evening, and I conclude this speech. First, the gentle- 
man said my mention of the South being represented 
here, was a crack of the whip intended to intimidate 
him, but that it vfould fail ! How absurd such an infer- 
ence from such a remark ! Does not every man of 
sense know, who has listened to these discussions, that, 



BY AV. G. BROWNLOW. 215 

from first to last, three or five of the audience to one, 
have been against me, and with my competitor, in sen- 
timent and feeling ? Has he not been surrounded by 
newspaper reporters friendly to his side of tlie question, 
while I have had none to report or write letters ? Is 
not the entire press of this city on his side ? Do they 
not give long reports of his statistics and points, while 
they crowd my speeches into twelve or fifteen lines, as 
preliminary to what they say in praise of him ? Last, 
but not least, has he not had a horde of free negroes 
and fugitive slaves here all the time clapping for him, 
and hissing me ? I wish to intimidate little Ahram 
Pryne, from McGrawville, New York, an unscrupulous 
Abolition missionary ! How utterly ridiculous the 
idea ! If I could successfully brow-beat him, it would 
be no credit to me. 

But, the gentleman bantered me to repeat this debate 
— where ? " In all the principal cities of the North ; 
both parties agreeing as to time, place, &c." This is 
a beautiful challenge, characteristic of the gentleman ! 
If he will so amend his challenge as to make it read 
thus, I am in for the war : " Repeat it in all the prin- 
ciple cities of the North and South, time about each 
side of the line ; Pryne selecting the Northern, and 
Brownlow the Southern cities." Here is a fair oiler — 
one which will give him a chance to enlighten the 
South, whilst I enlighten the North ! 

He made a flourish last evening over the falling off 
of the South, in her contributions to the Tract, Sunday 
School, and Bible cause, and boasted that the North 
doubled the South in her contributions. 

The American Tract Society has been involved in a 



216 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

controversy for some lime, the South charging some of 
its vile Abolition managers with publishing rank Abo- 
litionism in their tracts. The South does not choose 
to contribute to any such dirty work. 

As it regards the Sunday School cause, whose head- 
quarters are in this city, its Treasurer, a pious Anti- 
Slavery man, has proved a defaulter to the tune of 
about eighty thousand dollars, by speculating in 3Iorus 
MulticauUs. The South has no money to embark in 
this sort of enterprise. 

As it regards the Bible cause, the people of the 
South glory in promoting that, but we are growing in- 
different towards keeping so many in offices, upon high 
salaries, while they distribute as many Abolition docu- 
ments, as they do Bibles and Testaments ! 

His statistical comparison of the North and South, 
I will not only meet to-morrow evening, but I will show 
that the reverse of what he said is true, and as a fair 
debater I notify him of it, and call on him to come pre- 
pared to sustain himself with the proof. I shall prove 
what I say on the subject. 

He notified us last evening, that this being a great 
National question, he would not stoop to answer ques- 
tions of low ribaldry. Indeed ! On what strange meat 
has this our hero fed, that he has grown so great ! The 
question I propounded to him is, and I now repeat it — 
Would he be willing to see his daughter married to the 
son of such distinguished huck negroes as Sara. Ward 
or Fred. Douglass ? This may be a dark question, but 
it is a great Domestic question, intimately connected 
with the great National question ! I still call for an 
ansvrer. Let him say Yes or No ! If he will not con- 



BY W. G. BR OWN LOW. 217 

sent to a union of this character in his own family, why 
is he so loud, and apparently so earnest in his argu- 
ments to persuade others to do so ? Does he preach a 
doctrine he is not willing to practice ? Does he ask me 
and others to introduce gentlemen of color into our 
domestic circles, and is unwilling to say whether he 
would extend to them a similar courtesy ? A "want of 
candor in refusing to answer the question, shows a want 
of faith in the correctness and propriety of his own 
theory. " Thou believest that there is one God ; thou 
doest well : the devils also believe^ and tremble. But 
wilt thou know, vain man, that faith without works 
is dead ?" These are the teachings of the New Testa- 
ment (James 2d and 19, 20), a book, by the way, which 
sanctions slavery, and which, in consequence thereof, 
the gentleman thinks is only fit for a foot-ball ! 

Will he do it ? No, not him ! He will answer it as 
he has answered all my arguments, by going off on 
some side issues. He promised to reply to my scrip- 
tural arguments, and to meet the express passages I 
laid before him ; but he has never done it, and never 
will. 

He concluded by declaring that it was high time 
that slavery was abolished in the South, and by 
inuendo intimated that it would be done. And as he 
avowed his determination to labor in the cause, shoulder 
to shoulder with others of his kind, perhaps it will be 
gratifying to him to know when the good work will be 
accomplished. I am able to tell him the precise time when 
his labors will terminate, and he can communicate it 
to his co-laborers. When the angel Gabriel sounds the 
last loud trump of God, and calls the nations of the 
19 



218 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. 

eartli to judgment — then, and not before, will slavery 
be abolished south of Mason and Dixon's line ! Work 
on, brother Pryne, in the good cause — there is a good 
time coming, and I hope you may be there to 
see it ! 

The o-entleman's denunciation of the late Mr. Brooks, 
of South Carolina, and his application of the term 
ruffian to him, were in very bad taste, since that gifted 
and brave man is in his grave, and has been for a length 
of time. Mr. Brooks was an honorable, generous, and 
high-minded gentleman ; and he who says otherwise is 
the slanderer of the dead, and the perpetrator of a 
falsehood unworthy of a professor of the Christian 
religion ! 

As I am still within my time, I will say a word as 
to his comparison of the soil and extent of territory 
in New York and North Carolina. Why single out 
North Carolina? She is a gallant State. The first 
blood in defence of American liberty was shed there, 
and the first Declaration of Independence was issued 
there. God bless North Carolina ! But she is an old 
and small State, compared with others in the South, 
and much of her soil is thin and worn-out. Why not 
call up Texas, side by side with the great State of New 
York. Texas will make three such States ; and be- 
tween the soil, as to fertility, and the climate, as 
adapted to agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, 
there is no comparison. 

Why not call up Arkansas ? According to the re- 
cords of the general land-ofiice of Arkansas, she has 
an area of 55,000 square miles, equal to thirty-five 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 219 

MILLIONS OF acres! And this is exclusive of her 
territory covered by rivers, lakes, and unexplored 
swamps, which will, in the course of a few years, be 
in a high state of cultivation, and covered over with 
Southern negroes, cheerful, contented, and happy, as 
all Southern negroes are whose minds are not poisoned 
by the false representations of such unprincipled Abo- 
litionists as the one who will follow me in a short time! 
Let me tell him that Arkansas alone is equal to the 
States of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Maine ! 
Or, if the gentleman please, Arkansas is as large as 
the great State of New York, with New Jersey and 
Connecticut thrown in! 

But, gentlemen, you shall hear from me to-morrow 
evening, as to the extent of the territory of the South, 
and her vast capabilities. The w^ealth of a people is 
to be estimated by their surplus productions. All the 
enterprises of peace and war depend on what a nation 
is able to spend. The Reports of the Secretary of 
the Treasury show, that the exports of the United 
States amounted last year to $270,000,000, exclusive 
of gold and foreign merchandise re-exported. Of this 
amount, the productions of the South are $185,000,000. 
In addition to this, we sent to the North, from the 
Slave States, $35,000,000 of our surplus productions, 
worth, when manufactured, $220,000,000, equal to 
$16.66 per head of our population, supposing it to be 
twelve millions — a dividend which no nation on earth 
can show ! I thus advertise the gentleman of what is 
coming, that he may prepare to meet it ! 



220 AFFIRMATIVE, IV. — BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 

Thanking you for your attention, I yield the stand 
to our hero of freedom and amalgamation, whose style 
can but remind you of the lines of Wordsworth 

"Among the rocks and winding crags — 
Among the mountains far away — 
Once more the Ass has lengthened out 
More ruefully and endless shout, 

The long dry see-saw of his horrible bray 1" 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 
Negative, IV. — By Abram Pryne. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — Permit me, before I 
proceed to my argument of this evening, to brush 
away from the track of this debate two or three little 
incidental matters which have been introduced by my 
opponent. 

In the first place, allow me to say that the coarse, 
vulgar, and brutal allusion to myself and my family, I 
shall not touch in definite terms, nor stoop to answer. 
Gentlemen, I stooped quite enough when I engaged in 
this debate. 

Let me say, however, that under the instructions of 
their own good mother, my children are taught the 
principles of freedom and humanity; and should my 
daughter, on reaching the years of womanhood, be 
asked for her hand by any lordly stripling of the lash, 
she would answer in the language of Whittier's Yankee 
Girl: 

"With a scorn in her eye which the gazer could feel, 
And a glance like the sunshine that flashes on steel. 

"Go back, haughty Southron ! thy treasures of gold 
Are dim with the blood of the hearts thou hast sold ; 
Thy home may be lovely, but round it I hear 
The crack of the whip and the footsteps of fear ! 

19* (221) 



222 NEGATIVE; IV. 

" And the sky of thy South may be brighter than ours, 
And greener thy landscapes and fairer thy flowers ; 
But dearer the blast round our mountains which raves, 
Than the sweet summer zephyr which breathes over slaves I 

" Full low at thy bidding thy negroes may kneel, 
With the iron of bondage on spirit and heel ; 
Yet know that the Yankee girl sooner would be 
In fetters with them, than in freedom with thee I" 

A single word as to the practical question of the 
mixture of the races. I believe it was Henry Clay who 
computed what number of years it would take, accord- 
ing to the progress of Southern amalgamation, to 
bleach the whole slave population white. If gentlemen 
wish to see where this evil prevails, let them look at 
the variegated colors in the South. 

During this discussion, there have been repeated 
allusions to Northern men, and they have been held up 
to scorn as guilty of pusillanimity and hypocrisy. Mr. 
Garrison (with whom I do not agree, but whom I honor 
as a noble and true man), and Henry Ward Beecher 
and others, have been made the objects of such attacks. 
Why, gentlemen, if this anti-slavery enterprise had 
done no other good than to bring into public view those 
lofty and glorious characters that lead it, realizing once 
more the old heroic age in their manifestations of moral 
heroism, it would be well worth all it has cost. 

And, gentlemen, although Northern men have some- 
times been altogether too much disposed to cringe to 
the South, I believe that Pennsylvania has had a man 
[Grow] who, in the last Congress, was able to show 
that Northern blood, although slow in rising, is, when 
once up, quite able to protect its rights. 



BY ABRAM PRYNE 



990 



Criminal statistics with reference to the North have 
been given by my opponent ; and he has laid great 
stress on the number of criminals in the State of New 
York. In passing I would merely remark, what you 
all doubtless understand, that the city of New York 
being the great entrepot of the continent, the mass of 
foreigners from all nations flock there ; so that, of 
course, whatever may be the other conditions, there 
will be more criminals there. Besides, the very class 
of criminals that the North punishes, go unwliipped of 
justice in the South. 

We send to prison our robbers, thieves, and mur- 
derers — our violators of female chastity — our de- 
frauders of the laborer — our ruffians who commit assault 
— our abductors of young girls from their homes and 
parents ; while the South sends to Congress her ruffians 
who commit rape — her robbers of cradles — her viola- 
tors of wives, sellers of maidens — her maimers of men, 
and whippers of women. Besides, the single State of 
New York has a population one-third as great as all 
the Slave States, counting in their slaves ; so that in 
criminal statistics, she ought to balance five of the 
largest Slave States. Lock up your criminals in these 
five States, and then we will count with you. 

Northern infidelity has been much harped on in the 
speeches of my opponent. Gentlemen, there are two 
kinds of infidelity. There is one kind that prays — 
and steals negroes; that sings psalms — and whips 
women ; that cants theology — and robs cradles ! 
However sound Southern theology may be in its 
theory — practical infidelity, scorning the rights of 
man, disregarding the claims of humanity, trampling 



224 NEGATIVE, IV. 

on tlie laws of God, is the general practice of the 
South; and its theology will never he ahle to fill the 
wide chasm between its profession of religion and its 
practices. If we must have infidelity of either type, I 
much prefer that type of unbelief which is question- 
able in its theory, to the most orthodox theology, when 
so cruel, wicked, and inhuman in its practices. 

My opponent has thought proper to scorn, and flout 
at the Methodist Church of the ^orth. I am not a 
Methodist, nor a defender of the Methodist Church 
North ; but let me say that, whatever there is of right 
and of power in that church, it has reared itself into 
the respect and esteem of the Christian world, because 
of the recent movement among the Methodists North 
ji gainst American Slavery. All through central New 
York — by virtue of the efibrts of the Methodist Anti- 
Slavery paper, started on an independent basis — the 
spirit of Abolitionism is rising so high in the Methodist 
Church North, that, if the next General Conference 
should not cast out every slaveholder within its bounds, 
there will be another division, and one that will purify 
the Methodist Cluirch North, and make it Anti-Slavery. 

I have found it difficult to get from my opponent the 
material of this debate, and have been compelled to 
allude, in my previous addresses, to many arguments 
not yet offered by him, but which are usually urged on 
the Pro-Slavery side of the question. I shall pursue 
to-night the same course. 

One argument often urged against the Anti-Slavery 
men of the North, is, that the agitation of the freedom 
of the slave tends to violate the compromises — the 
guarantees to the South, entered into on the formation 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 225 

of the American Constitution. Where are those gua- 
rantees ? Are they really found in the Constitution, 
or do they exist only in the brains of Southern men ? 
Are they in the preamble, which I read and commented 
upon the other night ? Are they in this clause ? 

" No person shall be deprived of life, liherf?/ or property, 
without due process of law/' 

Yet three millions of persons have, without the sha- 
dow of a shade of legal process, been deprived of liberty, 
and even of the right to own property, by the South, 
which claims a right to do this, guarantied by the Con- 
stitution. What is " due process of law " but a trial by 
jury ? Is it '' due process of law " when a man is im- 
prisoned or placed in bondage, even before he is ac- 
cused ? Is it '^ due process of law " when the lash is 
laid upon him without a legal trial ? Carry out this 
clause of the Constitution in its proper spirit, and so 
far from being a guarantee of slavery, it will prove a 
guarantee of freedom, and will sweep American slavery 
from the nation. 

'''Due process of laiu.' This phrase (a technical term in 
law) means indictment and trial by jury, for some alleged 
crime, and verdict and sentence in open court. For this de- 
finition we have the authority of Lord Coke, Judoe Story, 
fin his Commentaries,) and also of Judge BronsonT (Hilf s 
Reports, IV., 146.) By the latter two, the definition is 
made to apply to the Constitution of the Uoiifed jStafes. And 
Judge Bronson's decision sets aside a JSlafe enactment, on 
the ground that it takes away property without this ^due 
process of law.' Then h'bertj/ cannot be taken away without 
the same ' due process of law,' even though a State enactment 
could be produced in support of it. The" writ of Rabeas Cor- 
pus, as before shown, secures this ' due process of law ' for 
all who are held in slavery, and the process would release 



226 NEGATIVE, IV. 

them all. No slave in America was ever reduced to slavery 
by ' due process of law.' It is impossible thus to enslave 
men, for though persons may be imprisoned for crime, under 
' due process of law/ and, to that extent, deprived of liberty, 
yet they cannot thus be reduced to ' goods and chattels per- 
sonal/ or made the 'property' of their fellow-men. There 
is no legal process for this; nor can it be done, even when, 
' in cases of invasion or rebellion, the public safety may re- 
quire ' ' the writ of habeas corpus ' to ' be suspended.' There 
is neither law nor valid precedent for any such process." — 
National Charters, Goodel. 

But where, in the Constitution, will we find these 
guarantees in favor of slavery ? In that clause which 
declares that the habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
— that glorious writ that the stern old barons wrung 
from the tyrant King John, and which our fathers wove 
into the Constitution of the United States — that wTit 
under w^hich every man restrained of his freedom has 
the right to appeal to the courts, and have an investi- 
gation into the cause of his detention. Let that writ 
be issued by the Judges of the United States Courts, 
as they are bound to issue it, under the Constitution, 
on the complaint of every slave in this nation. Under 
that clause which provides that " no person shall be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process 
of law," let them inquire why these slaves are held in 
bondage, and let them find the law for American slavery. 
Under the writ of habeas corpus, tried bj a judge 
worthy of the bench, every slave in the nation would 
be set free ; for the Constitution of the United States 
would bear him out in that decision. 

It may be replied, perhaps, that Judge Taney has 
made the Dred Scott decision, in which he says that 
black men have no rights which white men are bound 



BY ABRAM PRYNE, 227 

to respect. I admit that -when a judge descends from 
the dignity of the judicial station, prostitutes his high 
office, and becomes the mere caterer of a political party, 
turns the United States Court room into a political 
caucus, makes his decisions under the pressure of poli- 
tical influence — you cannot trust him to carry out the 
Constitution, or anything else. But when we have such 
judges, we are not without redress. Men do not live 
always. We shall, I hope, get very soon a better set^ 
of judges upon the bench of the Supreme Court ; and 
then, under those clauses of the Constitution that I 
have named, American slavery can be and will be abo- 
lished. Gentlemen, I have no apology to offer for 
bringing to bear upon men in high places who are de- 
relict in their duty, as scathing a rebuke as I would 
direct at the humblest mechanic in Philadelphia, did I 
deem him guilty of as flagrant an offence. 

Judge Taney's decision is based upon the historical 
fiction, that when the Constitution was framed, no con- 
siderable body of people in the country regarded the 
negro as having any rights, and therefore the Consti- 
tution, whatever its language, cannot be supposed to 
recognise any rights for him. I explode this assump- 
tion by quoting from the history of the times immedi- 
ately preceding the adoption of the Constitution. 

William Pinckney said in 1789, the very year the 
Constitution was adopted : 

"Sir — Iniquitous and most dishonorable to Maryland, is 
that dreary system of partial bondage which her laws have 
hitherto supported with a solicitude worthy of a better object, 
and her citizens by their practice, countenanced. Founded 
in a disgraceful traffic, to which the parent country lent its 



228 NEGATIVE, IV. 

fosterino; aid, from motives of interest, but whicTi even slie 
would have disdained to encourage, had England been the 
destined mart of such inhuman merchandise, its continuance 
is as shameful as its origin." 

In the Convention that drafted the Constitution — 

'' Mr. Madison declared, he ' thought it wrong to admit in 
the Constitution the idea that there could be property in 
nien.'— 3 3Iad. rap.,U29. 

" On motion of Mr. Randolph, the word ^ servitude' was 
struck out, and ' service' unanimously inserted — the former 
being thought to express the condition of slaves, and the 
latter the obligation of free persons." — Ih. 3., p. 1569. 

In the Virginia Convention to ratify the Constitution, 
Patrick Henry argued " the power of Congress, under 
the United States Constitution, to abolish slavery in 
the States,'' and added: 

" Another thing will contribute to bring this event about. 
Slavery is detested. We feel its effects. We deplore it with 
all the pity of humanity." — Debates Va. Convention, p. 463. 

" In the debates of the North Carolina Convention, Mr. 
Iredell, afterwards a Judge of the United States Supreme 
Court, said — 'When the entire abolition of slavery takes 
place, it will be an event which must be pleasing to every 
generous niind, and every friend of buman nature.' " — 
^^^ Power of Conc/ress," &c., pp. 31-2. 

And yet Judge Taney says nobody believed at that 
time that tbe negro bad any rights to be respected. 

Another defence offered by the South against the 
abolition of their slave system is, that their slave pro- 
perty cannot be interfered with without the violation 
of State sovereignty. What is State sovereignty ? Is 
it the unrestrained power to inflict wrong in the name 
of law ? Sovereignty has its own natural limits. God 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 229 

himself is not a sovereign in such a sense that he has 
a right to do wrong ; nor is any State sovereign in such 
a sense. The sovereignty of the States is bounded by 
the objects and purposes for which States are instituted, 
and only sweeps the area of their legitimate power, 
which is to protect the rights of man. When a State, 
under its claim of State sovereignty, wields its power, 
not for the protection of the rights of man, but for the 
destruction of the rights of more than half its inhabi- 
tants, such an act, so far from being in harmony with 
the principles of State sovereignty, is in harmony only 
with the principles of State viJlany. I deny the ex- 
istence of any State sovereignty which confers a power 
to do wrong. 

Cromwell, when charged with wanting allegiance 
to the king, in demanding the execution of Charles, 
replied : 

"No, I am true in my allegiance to the king. Bring me 
a king, and I am ready to bow down to him, to do him reve- 
rence, to obe}' his authority. But this thing that you have 
here is a beardless, effeminate boy; there is no kingship about 
him, no royalty in his soul, nothing kingly in his person or 
his life ) and by virtue of all my regard for true kingly 
dignity, I am bound to see that this thing be displaced from 
the seat of the king/' 

So say I with reference to State sovereignty. I am 
ready to bow to State sovereignty, and pay her alle- 
giance. But when you bring me in the presence of 
State villany, and demand, in the name of State sove- 
reignty, that I shall do her homage, I answer, " This 
thing to which you ask me to bow, is not State sove- 
20 



230 NEGATIVE, IV. 

reignty ; it is State villany ; State sovereignty demands 
the freedom of every slave." 

Besides, State sovereignty must be limited by the 
other clause of the Constitution : 

" Conirress shall guarantee to every State of this Union a 
republican form of government." 

The States, I take it, have no sovereignty that over- 
rides this power of Congress to guarantee to every 
State a republican form of government ; and if slavery] 
is at all points antagonistic to the true idea of republi- 
can government, the very guarantee to each State of a 
, republican form of government would sweep slaveryj 
from the nation. 

Another objection to the Anti-Slavery movement 
often made by Southern men, is, that the agitation of 
this slavery question will drive the South out of the 
Union. Well, what of it ? What if the agitation 
should drive the Southern States out of the Union? 
Who cares ? Not I. What interest has the North in 
the Union ? Of what value is the Union to us when 
we have been used to catch the slaves of the South — 
when the Union has tied us to the incubus of American 
slavery ? Of what value is it to us when what the 
South wants of us is that we should help her fight her 
battles for slavery ? Though I am not a disunionist, 
yet I cannot, by any demonstration, be made to shrink 
from afiirming that if the question be, whether slavery 
shall be abolished by the dissolution of the Union, or 
shall continue without its dissolution, I am, such being 
the terms, no defender of the Union. 

But, gentlemen, I am not in the least afraid that the 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 231 

South will go out of the Union. Visiting the county 
poor-house before I left home, I saw the paupers, wlio 
were most of them cripples or infirm, eating their com- 
fortable dinner, everything around showing that they 
were well cared for. I cannot but think that this 
threat of the South that she will dissolve the Union, 
has just as much pith and weight as would the threat 
of those county paupers, that if they could not have 
their own way, they would dissolve the union with the 
county. I rather think that the county could get 
along without them, and that the North would survive 
a dissolution of the Union. 

All this bluster about going out of the Union is not 
worth the wind it costs. It reminds me of a storv I 
have heard. A young man, who wished to be con- 
sidered a great fighting character, rushed into a crowd 
with much bluster and noise, and wanted to whip some- 
body. His father, pretending to be fearful that he 
might do some damage, rushed in after him, caught 
him and held him, calling on others to assist him, 
declarino; that he was a terrible fellow in a fight. 
Presently, a brawny Yankee stepped forward and 
squared off, exclaiming, " If that fellow wants to fight, 
let him come on !" The noisy bully did not like the 
looks of his eye, and had no notion to fight, only 
intending to get a reputation for courage cheap ; and 
frightened by this unexpected turn of affairs, in an 
agony of fear cried out to those around him : " Hold 
that other fellow ! hold that other fellow, some of you ! 
I guess dad can manage me." So the South will cry 
out, when she sees that the North is ready to leave 



232 NEGATIVE, IV. 

the Union : " Hold that other fellow, some of you ! I 
guess dad can manage me." 

Let me, in this connection, relate another anecdote. 
A tall six footer in Western New York was in the 
habit of getting drunk occasionally. In one of these 
drunken fits, he determinined that he would frighten 
his wife, by making her believe that he intended to 
smash all her crockery-ware. So, when he reached 
home, he put on as solemn a manner as he could com- 
mand, and said to her : " Polly, set all the dishes out 
on the table, for I am going to break them all — every- 
one of them." Polly at once set them out, and then, 
taking an old cracked pitcher, she dashed it upon the 
hearth, breaking it into a hundred pieces, and called out 
to him : " Come on, Seth, I'll help you." " Polly," says 
Seth, " I guess you can set up the dishes for the 
present." So the South is ready to make a great 
noise, and threaten to break all the dishes, so long as 
she thinks she frightens the North ; but let the North 
show a disposition to meet her half-way, and she will 
say : " Polly, I guess you can set up the dishes." 

My opponent has asserted that the right of property 
in man is a universal right acknowledged in all nations. 
I answer him in the magnificent sentences of Lord 
Brougham : 

''Tell me not of rights; talk not of the property of the 
planter in his slaves. I deny the right ', I acknowledge not 
the property. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such 
a claim. There is a law above all the enactments of human 
codes — the same throughout the world, the same in all 
times : it is the law written by the finger of God on the 
hearts of men ; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 233 

while men despise fraud aud loathe rapine, and abhor blood, 
they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty phan- 
tasy that man can hold property in man." 

I am satisfied to ofiset the sentiments of Brouo;ham 
against the assertion of my opponent. The assump- 
tion of the right of property in man is too plain a case 
to argue. Some things cannot be made more plain by 
argument, and the right of man to self-ownership is 
an axiom. 

Reference has been made to the testimony of the 
the Fathers, as being in favor of slavery. We have 
been told that Washington and Jefferson, and the 
other founders of the Republic, supported the slave 
system. 

I read the testimony of Gen. Washington. In a 
letter to John F. Mercer, dated Sept.—, 1786, Gen. 
Washington says: 

*'I never mean, unless some particular circumstances 
should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, 
it being among my first loishes to see some plan adopted by / 
which slavery, in this country, may be abolished by law." ^ 

I could give you extracts from other letters quite as 
pertinent ; but it is unnecessary to detain you with 
reading them. 

Let us hear the voice of Jefferson: 

'' There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the 
manners of our people, produced by the existence of slavery 
among us. The whole commerce between most of slaves is 
a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions — the 
most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading 
submissions on the other." 

20* 



234 N E G A T I V E J IV. 

^^And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, 
when we have removed their only firm basis — a conviction 
in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the g-ift 
of Grod; that they arc not to be .violated but with His wrath? 
Indeed, I tremble for my country when 1 reflect that God 
is jmt ; that His justice cannot sleep forever ; that, consi- 
dering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution 
of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situations, is among 
possible events; that it may become probable by supernatu- 
ral interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can 
take sides tvith us in such a contest J' 

I could multiply quotations from Jefferson to the 
same effect. 

What is the voice of Madison? Advocating the 
abolition of the slave-trade, he said: 

'i 

"• The dictates of humanity, the principles of the people, 
the national safety and happiness, and prudent policy, require 
it of us. It is to be hoped that, by expressing a national 
disapprobation of the trade, we may destroy it, and save our 
country from reproaches, and our posterity from the imbeci- 
lity ever attendant on a country filled with slaves." 

Monroe says : 

"We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very 
vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States 
in which it has existed.'^ 

Hear the language of Patrick Henry: 

" It would rejoice my very soul that every one of my 
fellow-beings were emancipated. We ought to lament and 
deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage. 
Believe me, I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts 
to abolish slavery.'^ 

John Randolph, in a letter to Wm. Gibbons, in 



1820 



says 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 235 

"With unfeigned respect and regard, and as sincere a 
deprecation of the extension of slavery and its horrors, as 
any other man, be he whom he may, I am your friend, in 
the Hteral sense of that much-abused word. I say much 
abused, because it is applied to the leagues of vice, and ava- 
rice, and ambition, instead of good-will toward man from 
love of Him who is the Prince of Peace/' 

Thus I could go on, and give you page after page 
of similar testimony, from men of the South as well 
as the North. But I will only add the testimony of 
the "Old Dominion"— of Virginia herself— before she 
found that she could make money by breedino- slaves. 

The "Virginia Society for the Abolition of Sla- 
very," organized in 1791 (in those days, they had an 
Abolition Society in Virginia 1), addressed Congress in 
these words: 

"Your memorialists, fully aware that righteousness exalt- 
eth a nation, and that slavery is not only an odious degra- 
dation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential 
rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts 
of the Gospel, which breathes 'peace on earth and good-will 
to men,' lament that a practice so inconsistent with true 
policy and the inalienable rights of men, should subsist in 
so enlightened an age, and among a people professing that 
all mankind are, by nature, equally entitled to freedoni." 

/ The first General Congress of the colonies assembled 
in Philadelphia in September, 1774. Preparatory to 
that measure, the Convention of Virginia assembled in 
August of that year, to appoint delegates to the Gene- 
ral Congress. An exposition of the rights of British 
America, by Mr. Jefferson, was laid before this Con- 
vention, of which the following is an extract : 



236 NEGATIVE, IV. 

^The abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest 
object of desire in these Colonies, where it was unhappily 
introduced in their infant state. But, previous to the en- 
franchisement of the slaves, it is necessary to exclude further 
importations from Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to 
effect this by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which 
might amount to prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by 
his Majesty's negative; thus preferring the immediate ad- 
vantage of a few African corsairs to the lasting; interests of 
the American States, and the rights of human nature, deeply 
wounded by this infamous practice." — -Am. Archives, ith 
series, vol. i. p. 696. 

The Virginia Convention, before separating, adopted 
the following resolution: 

"Resolved, We will neither ourselves import, nor purchase 
any slave or slaves imported by any other person, after the 
first day of November next, either from Africa, the West 
Indies, or any other place." — Ibid. p. 687. 

North Carolina also held her Provincial Convention 
in August of the same year, and 

"Resolved, That we will not import any slave or slaves, or 
purchase any slave or slaves imported or brought into the 
Province by others, from any part of the world, after the first 
day of November next." — Ibid. p. 735. 

Georgia spoke as follows : 

.' ''We, therefore, the Representatives of the extensive 
District of Darien, in the colony of Georgia, having now 
assembled in Congress, by authority and free choice of the 
inhabitants of said District, now freed from their fetters, do 
resolve : 

" To show the world that we are not influenced by any 
contracted or interested motives, but a general philanthropy 
for all mankind, of whatever climate, language, or com- 
plexion, we hereby declare our disapprobation and abhorrence 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 237 

of the unnatural practice of slavery in America (however 
the uncultivated state of our country, or other specious arou- 
ments, may plead for it), a practice founded in injustice and 
cruelty, and highly dangerous to our liberties (as well as 
lives), debasing part of our fellow-creatures below men, and 
corrupting the virtue and morals of the rest, and is layin^^ 
the basis of that liberty we contend for (and which we pray 
the Almighty to continue to the latest posterity), upon a very 
wrong foundation. We, therefore, Resolve, at all times to 
use our utmost endeavors for the manumission of our slaves 
in this (Jolony, upon the most safe and equitable footing for 
the master and themselves/' Jan. 12th, 1775. — IhuL p. 
1136. 

You will now agree, I think, that the testimony of 
the Fathers is on mj side, not that of my opponent. 

In the course of this debate, much has been said 
against the efforts to abolish slavery, because of the de- 
graded character and mode of life of such colored per- 
sons as have escaped to the North ; and my opponent 
has given you the horrors of the state of society in Ca- 
nada. It has been affirmed that the slave is unable to 
take care of himself. How happens it, then, that he 
takes care of himself and his master ? for his master 
does not work. Poor fellow ! he must have a hard task 
to take care of himself, with a half-dozen lazy whites 
hanging to the skirts of his tattered garments to filch 
their living out of him. What is it but adding insult 
to injury, when you thus load him with fetters, steal 
his wages, and then affirm that he cannot take care of 
himself? 

But let us see whether the slaves that escape to the 
North are able to take care of themselves. Let us see 
what is their character with the people of Canada. I 
read an extract from the Toronto Journal: 



238 NEGATIVE, IV. 

" The colored people of Toronto are an example in point 
of industry, sobriety, and morality, to their white neighbors. 
Out of 5o46 persons committed to Toronto jail, last year, 
52G8 were white men and women ! ! ! Out of 1057 ladies 
committed, only eight were colored. We Judge yeojple hij 
their conduct, not by their color." 

Let me read to you also the testimony of an ex-she- 
riff in Canada : 

" I have also great pleasure in stating, that so far as my 
knowledge of the colored population of Toronto is concerned, 
great credit is due to them for their general good conduct 
and industry, and that during the long period in which I 
continued to hold the office of Sheriff, fewer convictions for 
offences took place in the Superior Courts and Courts of 
Quarter Sessions, which I had to attend, than, when com- 
pared with the white population, might have been expected. 

" I remain, Sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 
^'W. B. Jarvis, 
" Formerly a Captain in the Queen's Rangers and Ex- 
Sheriff" 

Let me now make a few remarks, suggested by the 
speech my opponent has given you to-night. He has 
given us a rehash of that long historical story, which 
he went over on the first evening of the debate, about 
the existence of slavery from the first ages until the 
present time. I replied to him on the evening when 
this course of argument was first offered ; and I will 
only give in substance the same answer to-night. Is a 
giant wrong any the less a wrong because its locks are 
gray with age ? Supposing it to have existed through 
all ages, does that fact change the blackness of its in- 
famy to the whiteness of innocence? or does it not 
rather deepen its dark stains of damning guilt before 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 239 

the moral sense of the whole world ? Does it make 
murder right because it began with Cain, and has ex- 
isted from that day to this ? So slavery (even admit- 
ting that it has existed in all ages and all nations) has 
existed as an outrage upon man, and gains no sanction 
of justice because it began its atrocities almost with the 
creation of the human race. 

It has been urged on the other side that Africa has 
been blessed by slavery, or rather, that Africa is such 
a horrid place that it is a blessing to the slave to bring 
him here. Let me tell the gentleman what made the 
coast of Africa so desolate, and what has contributed 
so much to the ruin of the people along the coast. 
They were as happy and contented as are those in the 
interior, until the slave-traders of the civilized world 
came to them with the vices of the slaveholders of the 
South, dealing out whiskey among them ; inciting the 
tribes to war one with the other ; scatterino^ the fire- 
brands of destruction among them ; exciting them, by 
appeals to their cupidity, to conquer their fellows and 
sell them into slavery. That dark, deep heathenism, 
which is to be found on the coasts of Africa, has 
gathered the blackest tinge of its enormity from the 
slave-trade, and from the efforts of the South and other 
portions of the world, to gain slaves from that region. 

Read the travels of Dr. Livingston. Has he not 
found in the interior of Africa a people who, not having 
been cursed by this horrid trade, are far advanced in 
enlightenment, and farther advanced in humanity than 
a great many professed Christians of Arnerica. They 
have built large towns, have rich agricultural districts, 
and are in a position to command the respect of the 



240 NEGATIVE, IV. 

world as much as any nation destitute of the blessmgs 
of Christianity. 

Admitting that the condition of Africa is bad enough, 
how is it bettered by slavery and the slave-trade? 
Is it not rather injured, depressed, made infinitely worse 
by the continued existence of American slavery ? 

The Bible argument has again to-night been touched 
on. I shall not weary you by a textual argument, but 
permit me to oifer a few reflections founded on the 
genius and spirit of true Christianity, shedding the 
light of its glorious principles upon this dark subject. 

Christianity sustains slavery — does it ? Jesus came 
among us to hang the world in chains — did he ? The 
law that he proclaims justifies robbing mothers of their 
children and wives of their husbands — does it ? What 
is the language of that law? The whole sum of Chris- 
tianity is thus condensed into a few sentences : 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength;" and ''Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

And when the commentary on this passage is given 
in the story of the Good Samaritan, we learn that our 
neighbor is he who is in distress, who has fallen among 
thieves. In short, our neighbor is the slave, who has 
fallen among the thieves of this nation. 

The very genius of the command I have quoted 
requires that we should act the part of the Good Sama- 
ritan towards the slave— should see that his wounds be 
bound up, and that he be protected in his rights against 
the thieves that would despoil him. 

Do you ask me to believe for an instant that Jesus, 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 241 

as lie looks down from heaven to-niglit over the broad 
expanse of the South — as His ear catches the piteous 
cry of the babe bereft of a mother's care, because that 
mother is under the lash — as He hears the deep groan 
of the poor slave who, on his hard couch is mourning 
the bitterness of oppression — as He listens to the 
shrieks of maidens, writhing under the whip, because 
they will not submit to lust, — do you ask me to believe 
that our glorious Saviour, as His view takes in this 
whole horrid scene of brutality, and outrage, and cruelty, 
is not only indifferent to its horrors, but even throws 
the shield of the Divine sanction over a hell on tlie face 
of God's earth. 

If you ask me to believe this, you ask me to cease to 
be a Christian, and turn infidel ! You ask me to change 
names between God and the devil ; for Satan himself, 
if there is left in his dark heart one particle of sus- 
ceptibility to good and true emotion, cannot be indifferent 
to the wrongs of the slave. Yet I am told here in pious 
phrase, backed up with canting quotations from hymns, 
that the religion of the Bible, which Jesus Christ came 
into the world to teach, sanctions, and shields, and 
throws its halo around American shivery ! 

Infidelity, indeed ! Why, if the alternative is to be 
either to accept a religion of this kind or to sink into 
blank infidelity, who wonders that infidelity makes pro- 
gress in the world ? Who wonders that men of mind 
and heart should refuse to swallow a religion which 
demands that they shall accept the American slave- 
system as impregnabiy holy ? 

No, gentlemen ; as an humble servant of God, I feel 
proud to do what I may to shield his glorious character 
21 



242 NEGATIVE, IV. 

from the imputation of being an abettor of man thieves. 
I am glad to have the opportunity of proclaiming here 
that the blackest blasphemy ever uttered by the lips of 
man is the declaration that God sanctions American 
slavery. 

On such a question as this, I cannot stop to bandy 
texts. Slavery is an attack broadly levelled at the very 
intuitions of our common consciousness. The great 
principle of freedom is so clearly mirrored in the 
depths of the human soul, that there is no need for me 
to cite Bible texts and historical incidents, or enter 
into a minute examination of the question of races. 
Even the brutes of the field know that the ethics of 
American slavery are false. The horse can detect in 
a moment the presence of humanity ; he knows the 
difference between a creature possessing a soul, and a 
piece of furniture — "goods and chattels personal." 
Yet the religion, the ethics, the politics of the South, 
and, I regret to say, of a portion of the North, have 
not yet attained to the perceptions of the horse ! 

In my view, it does not need philosophy, it does not 
need learning, it does not need quotations from the 
Bible, or from any other source, to settle a question so 
plain as this. The simple fact that God has given each 
man into his own hands — that He has stamped His 
own image on his brow — that He has given him the 
consciousness of his own individuality — that He has be- 
stowed on him the power to think, to will, to act, and the 
desire to take care of himself — this is God's own testi- 
mony, written upon the very foundations of human 
nature, declaring that man is entitled to liberty, that 
freedom is his birthright, and that whoever lays hands 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 243 

upon him to prevent its enjoyment, is violating the 
commands of the Spirit of God himself. 

This is a question which it seems to me affords but 
little ground for argument. It is not more argument 
that the world wants to be convinced of the iniquity 
of American slavery — it is more heart to feel for 
humanity. The difficulty is not a want of intellect, 
of learning, of historical research, of knowledge in 
regard to the races, but it is a want of soul to appreciate 
the dignity, and beauty, and glory of humanity — to 
understand the sacredness of that type of God which 
he has vouchsafed to us in each other's form — to feel 
the influence of the great law of human brotherhood. 
We have been told that American slavery will not be 
abolished until the judgment day. Let me say that the 
man holding such an opinion, but little knows the spirit 
of the age. Put your ear to the ground, my friend, 
and you will hear the low, muttering, rolling swell of 
the on-coming wave of humanity and intelligence, that 
shall ere long sweep from the earth every vestige of 
this horrid system. Understand the spirit of the age 
— the impulses of human progress, and the enlargement 
of human sympathies ; catch something of the spirit 
which rises up among our Northern hills, and finds its 
manifestation throughout Northern society ; and then 
you will come up to the faith that the day is not far 
distant when every slave on this continent shall be set 
free. 

The whole land has within a few days been in a jubi- 
lant state of excitement, because of the successful lay- 
ing of the great Atlantic Cable. The world is becoming 
a net-work for the communication of intelligence that 



244 NEGATIVE, IV. 

sliall thrill along the nerves of the electric wire from 
America to Europe, and make the circuit of the globe. 
In this enlightened day, great thoughts, great impulses, 
and great aims cannot be restrained ; and the spirit of 
American slavery can no more defend itself success- 
fully against them than prevent the plunge of Niagara 
over the fall. The time is hastening on, when by 
virtue of the enlarging impulses and vigorous growth 
of the human soul, American slavery shall be abolished. 

Look back even for a few years. In your own city, 
not very long ago, such thoughts as I have uttered 
would have been received with showers of brickbats 
and rotten eggs. It was then as much as a man's life 
was worth to testify to the truth. I come into the 
Anti- Slavery enterprise at too late a day to understand 
the full force and beauty of this martyr spirit. The 
men who in those days stood true to the glorious cause, 
who lifted up the banner of righteousness, and mar- 
shalled the better heart of the nation to see the wrongs 
of the oppressed — these men deserve to be embalmed 
in the memory of future generations ; the gratitude 
and love of the world should settle down upon them in 
one benediction. 

What ! stop the impulses of humanity, and prevent 
the abolition of American slavery ! A great idea 
never stops ; a glorious human impulse never belittles 
itself, and immortality speaks out in the birth of every 
noble thought. The intuitions of humanity, ever gain- 
ing breadth and strength, go onward and inward ; and 
truth, proving that 

"The eternal years of God are hers," 
moves forward in strength and power to final triumph. 



BY ABRAM PRYNE. 245 

I have no fears for tlie success of this enterprise 

no doubts that the slave will be set free — no dread that 
the jubilee will not come, for the hearts of this mighty 
nation have caught the impulse of freedom, and^'jou 
can never turn back the tide. I have only to say, 
that if in this debate I shall aid in the humblest way 
in giving impetus to the glorious cause, I shall feel 
richly repaid, and shall rejoice to the last day of my 
life in having had the proud privilege to strike one 
blow for God and man ! 



21* 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 
Affirmative, V. — By W. G. Brownlow. 

Gentlemen, having concluded my remarks last 
evening fifteen minutes inside of my time, I may exceed 
my limits to-night a few minutes, but it shall be very 
few. 

There is nothing more common in this age of polemic 
warfare, than for every combatant who assails the 
motives, calling, doctrines, or, if you please, the cha- 
racter of another, to claim the right to do so, because 
(as he says) he acts on the defensive. The reason of 
this must be obvious to every reflecting mind. He 
who acts in the defensive is entitled to the sympathies 
of the public, because he is supposed to have been un- 
justly assailed; and these sympathies will justify the 
defender, while the aggressor would justly deserve the 
opprobrium of the intelligent, and the frowns of the 
candid. But, as both the advocates and opponents of 
the South claim to occupy this ground, it is of the ut- 
most importance that this controversy should be settled, 
and that the candid and conservative men, both North 
and South, should be at once enabled to decide to whom 
this high claim belongs. It seldom occurs, in a family 
or neighborhood quarrel, a Church controversy, or a 
dispute between nations, or even sections of the same 

nation, that both of the parties to the dispute are 

(240) 



AFFIRMATIVE, V.— BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 247 

acting on the defensive. Some one commenced tlie 
war; some one is the aggressor; some one is to bhime 
more than another for the existence of said quarrel, or 
controversy. So it is in the present controversy 
which divides, distracts, and agitates this great Nation, 
from the cod-fisheries of Maine, to the Gulf of 
Mexico, growing out of the slavery question. Who is 
at^ fault, the North or South? It is my purpose in 
this, my last of this series of addresses, to set forth 
who is at fault. 

To defejid one's self, presupposes an unwarranted 
attack from another — not merely an attack, but one 
for which there was no just cause. I may attack an 

enemy of mine — a sworn and uncompromising foe 

with all the violence of which my nature is capable, 
and still I may act on the defensive, if the previous 
conduct of that enemy, including his threats of per- 
sonal violence, were such as to render my assault ne- 
cessary to my future safety. You, gentlemen, any of 
you, may attack an enemy in like manner, and still act 
on the defensive, if the previous threats of that enemy 
were such, in the eyes of the law, as to make that 
attack necessary to your future well-being. Nay, it is 
a principle in municipal law, both in this country and 
in England, that if an evil-disposed person threaten 
your life upon sight, you are justified in shooting him 
down upon sight. This was the principle acted upon 
by the gallant Putnam, when he assailed the wolf in 
his den. Putnam made the attack, but it was in self- 
defence. The JioivUngs and proivlings of the ^^ var- 
mint'' in the neighborhood, to say nothing of his de- 
predations among the live stock of the farmers, could 



248 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

no lons:er be tolerated. The vile wolves, attired in 
"sheep's clothing" in Abolitiondom, upon whom 
Southern farmers are visiting a righteous retribution, 
have howled about the borders of the Slave States long 
enough. Thej have prompted insubordination among 
our domestics ; they have stolen others, and run them 
off upon an under-ground railroad ; and they have re- 
sisted laws passed by Congress to restore to us our 
property. When we declared the War of the Revolu- 
tion, we were acting on the defensive. We declared 
the war, but we did it in self-defence. In the language 
of the Declaration of Independence, Great Britain 
"kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, 
without the consent of our Legislatures," &c., &c. 

Now, fellow-countrymen, how stands the case as 
between the Anti-Slavery men of the North, and the 
Pro-Slavery men of the South? Who commenced the 
"war of words and fight of quills," that has raged 
between the opposing sections of North and South, 
for lo ! a quarter of a century past ? Who has kept up 
the strife, and added fuel to the flame? In the 
language of the time-honored instrument already 
quoted, ^^let facts be submitted to a candid world." 

The Anti-Slavery men of the North, have persever- 
ingly refused us the exercise of those rights the Bible, 
the Constitution, and laws of our country guarantee 
to us, and to our children. Act iv. sec. 2, of the 
Constitution of the United States, declares that, — 
"No person held to labor or service in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in con- 
sequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such labor or service, but shall be delivered up on 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 249 

claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due." But this preacher of Abolition "righteous- 
ness," has avowed upon this stand, that he intends to 
stump the State of New York in favor of Gerritt Smith 
for governor, because he is pledged to call out the 
militia of that State, when any attempt is made to 
arrest a fugitive slave. The gentleman is said to own 
stock in the under-ground railroad, and to be associated 
with his colored superiors^ Douglass and Ward, and 
other negro-stealers of Syracuse. This will account 
for his zeal in this infamous cause. 

Now, the Fugitive Slave Law is based on the fore- 
going clause of the Constitution of the United States ; 
and the Supreme Court of the United States, the 
highest judicial tribunal known to this government, has 
declared this Fugitive Slave Law to be constitutional. 
Yet, Anti-Slaveiy men at the North resist this law, 
and thereby rebel against the Constitution and civil 
authorities of the country. 

Four years after the declaration of American Inde- 
pendence, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts emancipated 
their slaves ; and, eight years thereafter, Connecticut 
and Rhode Island followed their example. 

Three years after the last-named event, an Abolition 
Society was organized by the citizens of the State of 
New York, with John Jay at its head. Two years 
subsequently, the Pennsylvanians did the same thing, 
electing Benjamin Franklin to the Presidency of 
their association — lie declining to serve! Thirty-eight 
years after Pennsylvania struck off the shackles from her 
slaves, one-third of the convicts in her Penitentiary 
were free negroes ; and one-half of New Jersey's con- 



250 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

victs were free persons of color. Am I called upon for 
the proof in these cases, I cite the "Boston Prison 
Discipline Society's Report," for 1826-7. 

The records in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Rhode Island, did not show such a proportion of 
colored convicts, and for the best of reasons. The 
negroes were not there. Before the laws emancipating 
tliem could take efiect, the pious Abolitionists hurried 
them round to Virginia, and the Carolinas, and sold 
them for the cash. 

Thus are we of the South on the defensive in this 
controversy. And against whom do we wage war? 
It is against the sanctimonious hypocrisy of a band 
that, with words of pity on the lips, with wailing in 
the tone, with woe upon the visage, and bigotry where 
the heart should have been, continue to agitate this 
question as they have been doing for years, both in 
and out of Congress. 

The question really is, whether the teachings of the 
Bible, the provisions of our National Constitution, and 
the decisions of the Supreme Court, on the one hand, 
or the dictation of demagogues, on the other, shall rule 
the destinies of the South, and of the Union. Hence, 
our stand is taken, and our purposes immovably fixed. 
We have a right to peace under the provisions of the 
Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the decisions 
of the Supreme Court ; and we desire peace ; but we 
see no prospect of quiet, but, on the contrary, that of 
everlasting agitation ! 

I need not here pause to speak of the threats these 
agitators have uttered, respecting the abolition of 
slavery in the Southern States. One of the file-leaders, 



BY W . G . B R W N L O W . 251 

who represents the party, Senator Seward, said at a 
mass-meeting in Ohio, only two years ago : 

'' Slavery can be limited to its present bounds ; it can be 
ameliorated. It can be — and it mud be — abolished, and 
you and I can and must do it/' 

Only a few months since, Senator Wade, of Ohio, 
declared that the North was the lord and master of the 
South ; that the South would be compelled to obey her 
lord and master, whether so inclined or not. Senators 
Wilson, Hale, &c., followed in a like strain, until the 
victorious jubilations were concluded. Similar scenes 
occurred in the House of Representatives very often 
last session; and from these blustering threats, this 
gentleman defiantly ventured to utter his boast last 
evening, of a similar character. In his fanatical out- 
bursts of wild and fierce denunciation of the South 
and everything Southern, he is but the echo of such 
deman-on'ues and incendiaries as I have named. Nay, 
he is the sattelite of Seward, Smith, & Co., and revolves 
around them as his primary ! Their cardinal principles 
are as wicked, as revolutionary, and as vile, as are 
those of the Father of Evil; and they have these 
imblushing, unscrupulous, and unprincipled clerical 
hacks, and others, giving out their hostilities over the 
country ! 

And those who counsel resistance to the laws and 
to the Constitution of the Republic, like Mr. Seward, 
the people of the South will hold guilty of a high mis- 
demeanor, and they will ever treat them as disturbers 
of the public peace, nay, as enemies of the independ- 
ence, the perpetuity, the greatness, and the glory of 



252 AFFIR3IATIVE, V. 

the Union, under ^vliicb, by the blessing of Almighty 
God, we have hitherto so wonderfully prospered ! 

Bug why disturb a system that is beneficial to the 
physical and moral welfare of the negroes? Why 
remove them from the restraint of Christian and civil- 
ized life, and turn them back to savage barbarism, 
penury, want, and starvation, merely for the sake of 
saying they are free f Of what advantage is freedom, 
if men are not competent to use it, to their own and 
their neighbors' good ? Why take away the comfort 
they now enjoy, and turn them out to starve, or steal, 
or to be destroyed by a superior race ? Why all this 
noise about freedom, when that boasted freedom would 
bring anarchy, poverty, suffering, moral and physical 
desolation to the negro? Is there any of the spirit 
of Christianity in all this agitation? The examples 
of the French Revolutionists, and the acts of British 
emancipationists, particularly in the West India Islands, 
should be a warning to all American Abolitionists ! 

Negroes in a state of slavery are comfortable and 
prosperous beyond any peasantry in the world, and 
even beyond the most opulent serfs of Europe ; but 
emancipate them, and you irretrievably consign them 
to barbarism. Emancipate the slaves in the Southern 
States, and the white population w^ould either leave 
the negroes to ''one long day of unprofitable ease" — 
leave them to dream of happiness, or their abolition 
sympathizers to dream for them — or they would require 
the negroes to leave the country. 

Really, the only way to civilize and Christianize 
benighted Africa is to annex that vast continent to the 
United States, and let our people reduce them to 



BY W . G . B R W N L O W . 253 

slavery, set them to work, and thus develop the resources 
of Africa. Their lands are the finest in the world, and 
adapted to the culture of coffee, above all other lands. 
The English, French, and Spanish people, are not the 
people to own and direct African laborers — they exer- 
cise too much cruelty. God looks to the people of the 
United States to develop the resources of Africa, and 
I honestly believe he requires us to do that work. Talk 
about fiUibustering, and the unlawful seizure of territory 
in possession of others ! The Africans have forfeited 
their country, by refusing to labor, and to develop its 
resources. Men must labor. If they will not do so 
of their own choice, they must be compelled to do so, 
or starve. The negro will not work without some one 
to make him do so. Man is doomed to eat bread in 
the sweat of his face. This he cannot reverse. He 
may dream of ease without labor, but, while he dreams, 
the laws of nature, all ngiunst him, are sternly at their 
work. Indolence benumbs the feeble intellect of the 
negro, and inflames his vile passions, driving him into 
the extremes of savage barbarism. Indolence brings 
upon the negro, poverty and want ; it surrounds him 
with temptation ; and then, vice, with all her long train 
of blighting evils, winds her deadly coils around him, 
and makes him the willing slave of the Devil, to do his 
will upon a scale of savage barbarity, revolting to the 
finer feelings of the soul ! He dreams of peace and 
liberty, without labor, but he reaps a harvest of star- 
vation, poverty, disease, and death. The blossoms of 
his paradise are fi7ie ivords spoken by Abolitionists, but 
its fruits are death. Like the fabled apple of the Dead 
Sea, beautiful without, but ashes within ! 

I repeat, there is no call for the re-opening of the 
22 



254 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

African slave-trade among us : a sufficient stock of 
negroes are in our Southern States, to nnswer our ends, 
as well as the ends of Providence, which, shocking as 
the sentiment may be to your ears, are in perfect 
harmony ! Hamitic service is now a blessing to these 
United States, and it is a blessing to the slaves in 
bondage, though the oiiode of its transplantation was 
an abomination ! 

In future, then, the theatre for the achievement of 
the happiness of the African race, is not the United 
States — it is Africa, Utopia is not the field — it must 
be abandoned. Let us seize upon the vast territory 
of Africa, cultivate its rich soil, and force its millions 
of indolent, degraded, and starving natives, to labor, 
and thereby elevate themselves to the dignity of men 
made in the image of God ! Christian men at the 
South, who take a correct view of this question of 
slavery, will no longer make provisions in their wills, 
or otherwise, for the emancipation of their negroes, 
and cast them helpless, upon the frigid charities of the 
Anti-Slavery men of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the 
New England States. Let them sell their slaves to 
Southern planters here, and direct the proceeds to be 
applied to the opening up of new slave States in Africa, 
where we may settle down, and compel the natives to 
labor, thus causing civilization and Christianity to 
spread over a few millions of its population, and the 
moral effect would be irresistible ! 

What next ? According to the doctrines advanced 
here, by my not very worthy competitor, "Abolition" 
is the Christian's mission in this our day and genera- 
tion, and it is his only mission ! It again becomes 
necessary for me to recall the fact, that slavery of the 



BY W. G. BROWNLOW. 255 

worst sort existed throughout the Roman Empire in our 
Saviour's day, and in the days of his immediate succes- 
sors in office — and that neither Christ nor his Apostles 
ever were known to preach an ''Abolition" sermon, 
deliver an "Abolition" lecture, or offer up an "Abo- 
lition" prayer ; but, on the contrary, everywhere taught, 
"servants obey your masters." I do not mean to say, 
that Christ was passionately fond of slavery, or made 
a business of defending Roman slavery, which was more 
cruel and barbarous than American slavery, for I have 
no express declarations of Holy Writ to bear me out in 
saying so ; but, perhaps, I have good ground to say the 
very reverse. But I do mean to say, that Christianity, 
in the days of Christ, consisted in rendering unto 
Caesar the things that were Caesar's, and in letting civil 
and servile institutions alone. 

When Christ was on earth. He rebuked sin of all 
classes and kinds, and dared to rebuke the haughty 
Jewish priests in their temple, where they were guilty 
of sin; but, while slavery, cruel Roman slavery was 
all about Him, and He was daily in the midst of it, 
neither He nor his Apostles were ever known to preach 
an "Abolition" sermon. The slavery Christ saw daily 
was that under which a master could sell his slave, 
work him as many hours as he pleased in twenty-four, 
or PUT HIM TO DEATH if he thought proper to do so. 
Yet, Christ never preached a sermon in favor of abol- 
ishing even this kind of slavery ! 

A Roman slave could not contract a marriage ; and 
if he had children, with or without marriage, no legal 
relation between him and his children was recognized. 
A free woman having children by a slave, was at once 
reduced to bondage as a punishment for the offence. 



256 AFFIRM ATIVEj V. 

By way of parenthesis I take occasion to say, that the 
Boston matrimonial register shows, that during the past 
year of our Lord, 1857, there were no less than sixty 
amalgamation marriages ; and, singular to say, they 
were all white wowen to gentlemen of color, mostly 
fun-itives from the Slave States. The white ladies of 
Boston have singular tastes, and can hut feel proud 
that they are not living in the days of Christ and the 
Apostles, who endorsed a law that would have made 
them slaves ! I name this fact upon the authority of 
the JSFew York Dispatch, to show the growing degene- 
racy of New England. When avoman, the safeguard 
of virtue and purity, stoops thus to degrade herself, 
the degradation of man, as a necessary consequence, 
must follow. 

What next ? Under the laws regulating the slavery 
Christ tolerated, a slave could have no property. A 
runaway slave could not he lawfully received or harhored 
hy a second or third person ; to conceal him was death. 
The master was entitled to pursue him wherever he 
pleased, and it was the duty of all authorities to give 
him "aid and comfort" in his efforts to recover the 
fugitive. Persons became slaves by capture in war, 
Avithout any regard to rank, color, or sex. And yet, 
these were the laws that Christ and the Apostles ex- 
horted Christians to reverence and obey ; and this was 
the slavery against which they obstinately refused to 
preach a single sermon ! 

The immense number of prisoners captured in the 
constant A\ars of the Roman Republic, and the increase 
of wealth and luxury in the days of Christ, augmented 
the number of slaves to a prodigious extent. Roman 
citizens, not a few, owned as many as 10,000 and 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 257 

20,000 slaves. A freed man, under Augustus, after 
losing much property and many slaves in the civil 
wars, at his death disposed of 4116 slaves ! The 
games of the amphitheatre required an immense num- 
ber of slaves. The gladiators in Italy, only 73 years 
before Christ, were not defeated by the Romans till 
60,000 slaves were slain in battle. Regular slave- 
dealers accompanied the difierent contending armies, 
and, after a battle had been gained, the successful party 
threw thousands into the market, and sold them at very 
cheap rates. 

In the midst of this system of slavery the Christian 
era was inaugurated. Christ came in contact with it 
every day, recognized it as proper, preached sermons 
in which he urged obedience to these slave laws, and 
obedience to masters by slaves, but never delivered 
the first sermon in favor of the " Abolition " of slavery ! 
Christians owned slaves, and both bought and sold 
them, under the very noses of Christ and the Apostles ; 
and they, in turn, sanctioned the traffic, by receiving 
both the slaves and their owners into the Church, and 
administering its ordinances to them. What I mean 
to infer from these facts is, that if slavery were the 
sin and crime the Abolitionists of this day say it is, 
Christ saw it in a worse point of view, and never 
preached a sermon against it; never warred upon the 
government that protected it by law ; but, on the con- 
trary, taught obedience to that government, and reve- 
Irence for its civil and domestic institutions. His mis- 
sion was to call sinners to repentance — not to concen- 
trate the public mind upon the abolition of slavery, nor 

to divide churches, and distract society upon that 
22* 



258 AFFIRMATIVE, V . 

question J as do the hypocrites and demagogues of New 
England ! 

I would like to impress upon my brother preachers 
of the North the example of Christ when on earth, in 
the midst of Roman slavery — in itself almost indefen- 
sible, because of its atrocities; I could then make them 
useful in ameliorating and Christianizing African slavery 
in the United States. If Northern Anti-Slavery men 
would only reason with, instead of cursing and villify- 
ing the people of the South, some practical good to the 
slave, his owner, and the country generally, as well as 
to the Church, might be accomplished ; but their slan- 
der and AEUSE, and their officious intermeddlikgs, 
have drawn tighter the bonds of slavery in the United 
States, and caused the slaves to be treated with more 
severity than they otherwise would have been. 

What next ? Let us consider, briefly, some of the 
effects of this crusade against the South. The princi- 
pal watering-places at the North have not met with 
their usual success during the two or three seasons last 
past, — while those of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama, have been 
overrun. Heretofore, Saratoga, Newport, and Cape 
May, have been the grand centres of attraction for the 
fashionable society of every section of the Union. At 
these, and other points, the Avealth and fashion of the 
South have assembled in crowds, filling their vast ho- 
tels to repletion, while gold from the South, the pro- 
duct of slave labor, was poured out with a most lavish 
hand, such as the liberality and elegance of Southern 
people alone, could do ! My information is, that the 
hotels at these celebrated watering-places, the two past 
seasons, were but half filled, and scarcely a Southern 



BY W . G . B R W N L W . 259 

family was in attendance at any of them. Southern 
gentlemen now in this city, will attest the truth of these 
sayings. 

May we not pause here, and inquire into the cause 
of this sudden, and almost general desertion ? No one 
can be mistaken as to the cause. The South has been, 
for years, reviled and insulted by Northern Abolition- 
ists, and their vile presses. No terms of reproach 
were low enough to apply to us — negro-drivers, slave- 
killers, heartless-murderers, outside barbarians, and 
every vile epithet that could be coined, was heaped 
upon the heads of the Southern people, without dis- 
tinction of age or sex. The very elite of the South, 
including the most refined and virtuous females, have 
been grossly insulted at the tables of these Northern 
hotels, by insolent free negroes, acting as waiters and 
hired servants. Beside all this, the entire North, 
where these watering-places are located, in the late 
Presidential contest, voted for " Fremont and Dayton ;" 
a miserable sectional vote, indirectly given for a disso- 
lution of the Union. 

Hence it is, that the Southern people, heretofore 
the wealthy and liberal patrons of Northern watering- 
places, remain at home, go to Europe, or visit the supe- 
rior springs of their own native mountains. 

Nor is it the watering-places alone, that have been 
injuriously affected at the North ; this is but a small 
item in their losses ; many of the manufacturing towns 
at the North, have been sadly crippled in their busi- 
ness. Boston, the hot-bed of sedition, and Abolition 
slang- whanging, has done a little more than half her 
usual business with the South, the two last seasons. In 
the meantime, Boston has turned her attention to a 



260 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

new set of Free-Soil customers in the North-west, and 
these failing to meet their liabilities when the panic set 
in last fall, many banks and business-houses suspended, 
and not a few went by the board ! Such are, to some 
extent, at least, the effects of this Abolition crusade 
against the South. They are fast destroying their 
whole trade with the South, in their pious efforts to 
steal a few negroes, and to set others free. 

These Abolition vagrants, Kansas-sympathizing, 
Freedom-shrieking, Union-hating hypocrites, have gone 
out to shear, and returned home most gloriously shorn. 
And this decrease in business will continue from year 
to year, the South will build up a foreign trade, es- 
tablish Ocean steamboat lines from our Atlantic cities 
to the entry-ports of Europe, and thus convey our 
own products to the European markets, instead of 
sending them North, and paying a double commission 
for their transmission abroad, and that, too, to our 
bitterest revilers, and most unmitigated calumniators. 
Indeed, the South can do nothing less than to withdraw 
from all entertainments prepared for her by Northern 
fanatics. 

But the question arises in this connection. What 
are the capabilities and resources of the South ? Upon 
this point I desire to be heard with attention. We 
have already an immense line of railroad, and an 
equally extensive line of steamboats in successful ope- 
ration, and thousands of miles more projected. We 
have capacious ports and harbors strung along the 
Atlantic coast, from the Gulf of Mexico, to the Chesa- 
peake and Delaware Bays, including Sounds and Rivers, 
to head of tide, amounting to 23,803 miles, and more 
than doubling those of your boasted North! Our 



BY W . G . B II W N L W 



261 



inland water communications are unequalled. Look at 
the following tables, and tell me, does the South lack 
facilities for commercial intercourse? 

Table showing the shore line of States on the Atlantic coast 
and Gulf of Mexico. 



STATDS. 



Maine 

N. Hampshire 

Mass 

Rhode Island. 
Connecticut... 
New York... . 
New Jersey . . 
Pennsylvania 
Delaware. . . . 
Maryland. . . . 

Virginia 

N. Carolina... 
S. Carolina , . 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama .... 
Mississippi. . . 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Totals... 



Miles. 

427 
13 

209 
55 
14 

114 

118 

'"29 

44 

148 

299 

192 

76 

1,020 

33 

42 

616 

353 



S-a 



Miles. 
1,599 

37 
865 
153 
239 
886 
702 

'i36 

1,008 

735 

1,549 

356 

410 

3,005 

284 

206 

1,595 

1,284 



2-^ 



Miles. 

427 

24 

832 

232 

1,074 

1,057 

151 

106 

506 

3,401 

1,690 

932 

708 

408 

860 

313 

137 

936 

432 



; rS o3 



Mil es. 


Miles. 


2,026 


2,453 


50 


74 


1,074 


1,906 


208 


440 


253 


1,327 


1,000 


2,057 


820 


971 




106 


165 


671 


1,052 


4,453 


883 


2,573 


1,848 


■ 2,780 


548 


1,256 


486 


954 


4,025 


4,885 


317 


630 


248 


385 


2,211 


3,147 


1,637 


2,069 



14,286 18,851 33,137 



Total Northern 9,334 miles. 

Total Southern 23,803 " 



33,137 



262 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

Numiher of liarhors in the different States on the coast, and 
the principal ones on rivers to the head, of tide. [^In- 
complete.'] 

Number of harbors (not including 
States. all upon rivers.) 

Maine 52 

New Hampshire 3 

Massachusetts , 51 

Rhode Island 7 

Connecticut 32 

New York 27 

New Jersey 14 

Pennsylvania 3 

— 189 

Delaware 3 

Maryland , 11 

Virginia 22 

North Carolina 52 

South Carolina 21 

Georgia 15 

Florida 66 

Alabama 4 

Mississippi 10 

Louisiana 33 

Texas 12 

— 249 

Total 438 

The table of harbors is incomplete, but the full 
table will only increase the number of those of the 
South, and show her still greater relative superiority. 
With railroads and rivers traversing every portion of 
her territory; with safe and ample harbors indenting 
her coasts; and with thousands of miles of her shores 
washed by the ocean, what does the South lack in the 
way of facilities for transportation ? Nothing, lite- 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 263 

rally nothing. If, then, the South shall be forced to 
establish a separate and independent government, by 
the continued aggressions of the North, would her geo- 
graphical position shut her out from intercourse with 
the world? No, verily, she is throughout her whole 
extent, by the act of God, in contact with the commer- 
cial world. 

Our coal and iron, copper, lead, zinc, and other 
valuable minerals, are exhaustless; and the produce 
of an empire can now most readily be entered at any 
port in the South. 

But, with us in the South, "cotton is king;" and, 
in the language of Professor De Bow: 



*" '' It is the cotton-bale that makes the treaties of the world, 
and binds over the nations to keep the peace." 

Behind the cotton-bale, in time of war, our armies 
take shelter; while, in time of peace, our cotton-bales 
employ the shipping of at least half the American 
commerce; feed the looms and spindles of the entire 
North, adding all the wealth and opulence enjoyed by 
their great marts. And while we enjoy the right of 
Hamitic servitude, guarantied to us by the Constitu- 
tion of our country, and by the Divine laws of God, 
with our superior soil and genial climate, no competi- 
tion on earth will be able to stand before us. And 
these rights we intend to enjoy, or to a man we will 
die, strung along Mason and Dixon's line, with our 
faces looking North! Leave us in the peaceable pos- 
session of our slaves, and our Northern neighbors may 
have all the paupers and convicts that pour in upon us 
from European prisons, the getters-up of ''hunger 



264 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

meetings" at the North, and the propagators of most 
of the irreligious and impious isms of the day ! 

The productive wealth of the South, her agricultural 
and mineral resources, her population and extent of 
territory, are greatly underrated by the politicians of 
the North, and the reckless agitators of the slavery 
question, such as this gentleman ! 

There are nine hundred and twenty-nine thou- 
sand SQUARE miles of territory in the South — an area 
as large as that covered by Great Britain, France, 
Austria, Prussia, and Spain. The North, even after ' 
the admission of the two large Territories of Kansas 
and Minnesota, will fall MORE than one hundred 
THOUSAND SQUARE MILES short of the South. This 
does not include the territory lying west of the Rocky 
Mountains, which will never come into antagonism with 
the South. 

There are twelve millions of inhabitants in the 
slaveholding States of this Union, and of this number 
four millions are slaves ; and their aggregate value, 
at present prices, will amount to seventeen hundred 
millions of dollars ! This item of Southern wealth 
he left out of his calculation ! This gives us an aggre- 
gate population larger than that of Great Britain when 
she struggled against Napoleon and the combined 
armies of Europe ! The population of the slavehold- 
ing States of this Confederacy is five times that of 
the United Continental Colonies; it is three times that 
of Sweden and Norway; and greater than that of 
Belgium, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, 
and Greece combined ! We have a population five 
times as large as that Avhich conquered our independ- 



BY W . CJ . B R W N L W . 265 

ence, and a thousand-fold as strong ! We liave one 
MILLION OF MEN upon our muster-rolls, and not 792,876, 
as Mr. Pryne asserts ! At any time, upon short notice, 
the South can raise, equip, and maintain in the field a 
larger force than any power on earth can send against 
her — men, too, brought up on horseback, and in active 
life, with guns in their hands — men who will not desert 
their colors, as some of your Northern men have done, 
in Mexico and elsewhere ! 

Through the heart of the Slave States runs the 
mighty "Father of Waters," into whose bosom are 
poured thirty-six thousand miles of tributary 
streams. And in the great "Valley of the Mississippi" 
is to be the seat of the world's empire ! We have a 
shore-line of over three thousand miles, and so indented 
with bays, and crowded with islands, as to make the 
whole measurement twelve thousand miles ! We have 
the best soil and the best climate anywhere to be found, 
in an equal extent of territorj^, on the face of God's 
green earth ! 

In his contrast between the soil of the South and 
that of the North, he singled out North Carolina. 
Why not call up Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas ? No soil in 
the North will compare with these States ! 

The exportable products of the fifteen Slave States 
amount annually to $270,000,000, exclusive of gold 
and foreign merchandise re-exported ; and their annual 
demand for the productions of other countries is about 
$225,000,000. 

There are 80,000 cotton plantations in the South, 
and the aggregate value of their annual products is 
23 



266 AEFIRMATIVE, \\ 

$128,000,000. There are 16,000 tobacco plantations, 
and their annual products amount to $15,000,000. 
There are 2600 sugar plantations, the products of 
Avhich average annually $13,000,000. There are 700 
rice plantations, which yield annually a revenue of 
$6,000,000. Breadstuffs and provisions yield 78,000,- 
000 ; the products of the forest amount to $10,700,000 ; 
manufactures yield $31,000,000; and the products of 
the sea yield $3,356,000 — exclusive of $30,000,000 
•\ve send to the North. 

The facts and figures I have submitted in the fore- 
going remarks, rest mostly upon the authority of the 
Southern Cultivator, DeBoiv 8 Review, and the speeches 
in Congress of Senator Hammond and Representa- 
tive Keitt, of South Carolina. But I am happy to 
find all the leading facts I have submitted sustained by 
the Secretary of the United States' Treasury, in his 
late Report. I will read his statistics of exportation, 
as they show which section of our Confederacy fur- 
nishes them. This statistical report was laid before 
Congress by James Buchanan, and by him endorsed: 

" The Secretary of the Treasury, in his late Report, sets 
dowu the exportatiou of domestic produce, exclusive of specie, 
at ^266,438,051. Of this amount, cotton, which is exclu- 
sively from the South, furnishes $128,382,351; tobacco gives 
^12,221,813; and rice yields ^2,390,233 — both of which, 
also, are exclusively Southern; breadstufis and provisions 
are estimated at s?77,686,155; products of the forest at 
$10,691,184; of manufactures at S30,970,992; of the sea 
at $3,356,797. Now take $128,382,351 for the value of 
cotton, and $12,221,843 for tobacco, and $2,390,233 for rice, 
which are exclusively Southern staples, and we have the sum 
of $142,994,427, which the South contributes to the expor- 
tation of the country in three staple products, which, in the 



BY W . G . B R O W N L W . 2G7 

Union, are only raised within her limits. But her contribu- 
tion does not stop here. Of the $77,686,455 furnished by 
breadstuifs and provisions, she contributed at least '^25,000,- 
000 ; of the products of the forest, in the shape of lumber, 
etc. she contributed about $5,000,000, or one-half of the 
exportation. These $30,000,000, added to the $142,994,427 
which we have already shown was furnished by cotton, to- 
bacco, and rice, make up $172, 994, 427, out of the $266,438,051 
to which the whole domestic exportation amounts. This would 
leave $93,443,624, for the domestic exportation from all the 
Free States. But this is more than they are entitled to. 
Of the $30,970,992 contributed by domestic manufactures, 
at least $10,000,000 is the value of the raw material not 
grown at the North. This leaves only $83,442,624 as the 
contribution of the Free States against $172,994,427, as the 
contribution of the Southern or Slave States to the domes- 
tic exportation of the country." 

Where are your boasted statistics now, Mr. Pryne? 
It will be seen, from the foregoing, that the South 
furnishes more than tivo-tliirds of the exportation of 
the Union, after all your boasting at the NTorth, and 
your erroneous arguments to prove that slavery de- 
stroys the industrial pursuits of a country. Shame on 
your array of false statistics ! 

Talk about the patriotism of the North, and the 
devotion of her people to this Union ! The first blood 
shed in defence of liberty, and in opposing English 
oppressions, was in the South — yes, in the much- 
abused, slave-holding, and slave-dealing South ! The 
State of North Carolina — the glorious "Old North 
gtate" — the Kip Van Winkle of the South, whose 
poverty you have here derided, is entitled to the honor ! 
It was during the gubernatorial administration of the 
notorious Governor Tryon, the English governor at 
the time, who built one of the most splendid palaces in 



268 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

either North or South America, at Newbern, North 
Carolina, with the proceeds of taxes imposed upon the 
people for that purpose, and to resist which the people 
rebelled, just as did the men of Massachusetts after- 
wards. The battle took place in the year 1T71, and 
is narrated by Wheeler in his " History of North 
Carolina." On the 16th of May, in that year, the 
battle was fought between the Americans, called the 
'' Regulators," and the British troops, under the con- 
trol of the Governor, on the banks of the Alamnnce 
river, in what is known now as the county of that 
name. The British forces, including militia called out 
by Tryon, amounted to eleven hundred. The Ameri- 
can forces amounted to two tJiousand, The Koyal 
forces had the advantage in discipline and arms, but, 
after an action of two hours, came out of the contest 
with sixt2/ killed and wounded ; while the Americans 
had twenty killed and several wounded. Wheeler 
says : 

"Thus ended the battle of Alamance. Thus and here 
was the Jirst blood spilled, in these United States, in resist- 
ance to exactions of English rulers and oppressions by the 
English government. 'The great wolf of South Carolina' 
showed his blood-barbarity. He hung Captain Tew the next 
day, without trial, on a tree. 

^' It was in this case, as Byron truly says in one of his 
poems — 

" ' For Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though sometimes lost is ever won.' 

'' Thus we see that it was at the battle of Alamance, and 
not at Bunker Hill, that the first American blood was shed 
in the cause of liberty. ' Honor to whom honor is due.' " 



BY W. O . B 11 O W N L O W. 260 

What next ? Talk to me about the North having 
furnished the great men of the country. This ^vill do 
to tell to the marines. If we look into the history of 
the past, we shall find names in the South that will 
certainly live as long in history, and in marble, as in 
the North. Aye, there is one Southern name Vv'ith 
which there is none to compare, either in the North or 
in the civilized world. I pronounce the name of the 
'' incomparable Washington," a celebrated old Virginia 
slave-holder, and I call upon Edward Everett to 
testify, that the Northern colonies were eager to make 
him commander-in-chief of their forces in the war of 
the Revolution, and unanimously elected him the first 
President of the United States. Of the fifteen Pre- 
sidents of the United States, nine of them were 
Southern men. And who will say that the names of 
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, 
Harrison, Polk, and Taylor, are not quite as illustrious 
as those of the Adamses, Van Buren, Fillmore, Pierce, 
and Buchanan ? 

If the North has produced a Samuel Adams, a 
Hamilton, a Franklin, a Story, and a Webster, the 
sunny South has given birth to a Patrick Henry, a 
Clay, a Calhoun, a Marshall, and others of eminent 
talents. If the North has given to the country more 
than her share of distinguished authors and scholars, 
the South has yielded more than its share of the most 
distinguished generals, statesmen, and politicians. 

In conclusion, I am no alarmist ; I am no spiritual 

dreamer ; I am no prophet ; nor am I the son of a 

prophet ; but allow me to say, there exists among the 

villanous agitators of the slavery question at the 

23* 



270 AFFIRMATIVE, V . 

Nortli, a determination to doom to utter extinction 
both the rights and institutions of the South. It is 
quite impossible that the signs of the times can be 
misconstrued. A dissolution of the Union is what a 
large portion of Northern Abolitionists are aiming at. 
ISio longer ago than the 4th of August, 1858, the 
''Liberty Party," as they style themselves, held a 
Convention at Syracuse, and nominated Gerrit Smith 
for governor. My friend, Kev. Abram Pryne, 
figured largely in that meeting. He was the chairman 
of the committee on resolutions, and of course wrote, 
as well as 7'eported, what was adopted. I quote one 
of his resolutions, adopted with great eclat by the 
Convention : 

'■^Rcsohed, That American slavery is a crime against God 
and man, of such matchless magnitude that no forms of law 
can change its infernal character — no limitations or selec- 
tions of its territory or its power can reconcile us to its con- 
tinued existence; but we raise our voices in the name of 
God and humanity to demand its eradication from every 
foot of the soil of our country. 

I can tell the gentleman, and all who are of like 
resolution, that if their great-grand-children live to see 
"American Slavery" eradicated from the States South, 
where it now is, by the sanction of law and the pro- 
visions of our Constitution, as well as with the approba- 
tion of God himself, they will live until their heads are 
as grey as a Norwegian rat. We came honestly by our 
slaves at the South — wx are treating them as the law 
of God directs — and before we will have them seized 
and carried off by Abolitionists, we will pour out our 
blood as freely as we would water. The South is able 



B Y W . n . B R. O W N L O W . 271 

to take care of herself, and slie intends to do it at all 
hazards, and to the last extremity. 

The opposers of the South, by these ultra measures, 
seek to drive us out of the Union, that they may 
appropriate to themselves, when war comes, if come 
it must, the army and navy, and the contents of the 
national treasury ! But we of the South intend to 
fight you ill the Union, not out of it ! And when your 
hlue-hellied Yankees come South, with '' Sharp's rifles 
and Holy Bibles," to seize upon our slaves, let me say 
to you, that they will not find themselves in Kansas! 

What next ? Abolitionists at the North are ignorant 
of the South, in all material respects. Those only who 
reside there, or who have travelled extensively through 
the Southern States, know their people, their soil, 
climate, and capacities. Cast your eyes to the " sunny 
South," my countrymen, and what a glorious prospect 
meets the view ! Search creation round, and where 
do you find a land that presents such a scene for con- 
templation ! Look at our institutions, our agricultural 
and commercial interests ; and above all, and more 
than all, look at the gigantic strides we are making 
in all that ennobles human kind ! 

Yes, gentlemen, ours is the land of chivalry, the 
land of the muse, the abode of statesmen, the home 
of oratory, the dwelling-place of the historian, and of 
the hero; the scenes of classic recollections and of 
hallowed associations lie south of Mason and Dixon's 
Line ; and ^^hen the South is prostrated, (Avliich God 
in his mercy never intends,) the genius of the world 
will weep amid the ruins of the only true Bepublic 
ever known to civilized man ! 



2(1 A F F I R I\r A T T V E , Y . 

In saying tills, I am not for separating from the 
North, or dissolving the Union. I am Avilling to live 
and die for America, as she is, and has been; but 
America without the South, and blight, ruin, and decay 
come upon us ; and we bid a long farewell to the last 
remnant of earth's beauty and the light of heaven! 

Who can estimate the value of the American Union ? 
Proud, happy, thrice happy America ! the home of 
the oppressed ! the asylum of the emigrant ; where 
the citizen of every clime, and the child of every creed, 
roams free and untrammelled as the wild winds of 
heaven ! Baptized at the fount of Liberty, in fire and 
blood, cold must be the heart that thrills not at the 
name of the American Union ! 

When the old world, with " all its pomp, and pride, 
and circumstance," shall be covered with oblivion — 
wdien thrones shall have crumbled, and dynasties shall 
have been forgotten — may this glorious Union, despite 
the mad schemes of Southern fire-eaters and Northern 
Abolitionists, stand amid regal ruin and national deso- 
lation, tow^ering sublime, like the last mountain in the 
Deluge — majestic, immutable, and magnificent ! 

In pursuance of this, let every conservative Northern 
man, who loves his country and her institutions, shake 
off the trammels of Northern fanaticism, and swear 
upon the altar of his country that he will stand by her 
Constitution and laws ! Let every Southern man shake 
off the trammels of disunion and nullification, and 
pledge his life and his sacred honor to stand by the 
Constitution of his country as it is, the laws as enacted 
by Congress, and interpreted by the Supreme Court. 
Then we shall see every heart a shield, and a drawn 



BY W . G . B R O W N L O W . 273 

sword in every hand, to preserve the ark of our political 
safety ! Then we shall see reared a fabric upon our 
National Constitution, which time cannot crumble, 
persecution shake, fanaticism disturb, nor revolution 
change, but which shall stand among us like some lofty 
and stupendous Appenine, while the earth rocks at 
its feet, and the thunder peals above its head ! 

Contemplating our country and her Northern foes, 
a specimen of whom is here before us, may I not 
exclaim with the poet : 

" Country ! — on thy sons depending, 
Strong in manhood, bright in bloom, 
Hast thou seen thy pride descending, 
Shrouded to the unbounded tomb? 
Rise! — on eagle pinion soaring — 
Rise! — like one of God-like birth — 
And, Jehovah's aid imploring, 
Sweep the spoiler from the earth." 

In conclusion, I shall bestow but a few moments' 
reflections upon the speech the gentleman delivered 
last evening. He said he would not attempt a reply 
to my arguments, because they were not what he 
expected to hear — they were not the arguments he had 
known Southern men to use — he therefore would state 
the arguments used by Southern men, that he might 
apply to them the answers he had prepared before he 
left home ! This humiliating confession his pride of 
character should have prevented him from making 
before a public assemblage, even of Abolitionists. He 
would make an argument for the South, and then over- 
throw it ! This is the course of Abolitionists. They 
make all they assert, or charge against the South, and 



274 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

nine times out of ten, they assert and charge what is 
false. But enough as to this humiliating confession ! 

My extension of the Scriptural argument in favor of 
slavery, he met with the sweeping assertion, that it 
was a rehash of my former speech ; and with a tirade 
of abuse, and a collection of profane words and ideas, 
he wound up in a style disgusting to any decent, not 
to say Christian gentleman. If he could believe, for a 
moment, that the Bible sanctioned slavery, he w^ould 
have no use for its teachings, and would only regard it 
as fit for a foot-ball ! If he could believe that Jesus 
Christ sanctioned slavery, he would cease to be a 
Christian, and turn infidel, and would be in favor of 
chano-ino- the name of Jesus to Devil. This blasphe- 
mous language, in mercy to the cause of Abolitionism, 
even the newspaper reporters have suppressed ! This 
wicked language excited the disgust of every truly de- 
cent man in the Hall ; its monstrosity, bad as are the 
meaner portion of Abolitionists, must have been re- 
volting to them ! 

He next entered upon the Dred Scott decision — de- 
nounced the President and his Cabinet — villified the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, from Taney down — 
charged them with personal corruption, and official de- 
linquency — and thanked God that they would not live 
always ! Gentlemen, is he not a pretty disciple to call 
in question the correctness of the decisions of the 
United States Supreme Court ! In what law school 
was he brought up ? He had better withdraw his man 
Gerritt Smith from the race for Governor, and run him 
for President, and if elected, he will select this 
Lawyer Pryne for his Attorney-General, or appoint 



BY W. G. BROWN LOW. 275 

liim to the Supreme Bench. What a dignified judge 
he would make ! With what an ease and grace he 
wouki discharge fugitive slaves, when arrested ! 

The truth is, there are but a few thousand persons 
in the Empire State, who swallow the monstrous doc- 
trines of Smith, Douglass, Pryne, and Co. The Re- 
publicans and Americans have recently nominated their 
candidates, and refuse to support Smith. The mon- 
strous character of the sentiments held by this gentle- 
man, are not fully understood. He pretends to take 
offence at my asking him whether he is willing his 
daughter should marry a negro or not, when, in fact, 
he is an amaJgamationist in sentiment, if not in prac- 
tice. You have heard his eulogy upon Frederick 
Douglass, and his full endorsement of that arrogant 
and vulgar negro's sentiments. Then, to get at the 
real sentiments and feeling of Abram Pryne, you have 
but to know those of Douglass, whom he acknowledges 
to be his superior, and to whom, as a matter of course, 
he looks up. Here is an extract from a newspaper re- 
port of a speech by Douglass, published in the Chicago 
Times, where Douglass spoke during the late Presiden- 
tial contest : 

^ ^ ^ a There were white men and sooty wenches, and 
black men and white women, all listening with open mouths 
to this negro, who boasted that white and black people were 
disappearing, and mulattoes were fast increasing. He rejoiced 
that this amalgamation was progressing, and his white and 
black audience responded with cheers and tumultuous ap- 
plause to the disgusting sentiment. 

'' Fair white maidens were there, smiling upon the cham- 
pion of freedom and Fremont, and applauding with their 
gloved hands his earnest wish that the distinction between 
the white and black races would be lost, and instead of them 



27G AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

there would soon be but one race — the descendants of white 
women and black men — black women and white men. He 
thanked God that the mulatto race was on the increase in 
Chicago, and his audience cried — Amen !" 

As great as is his aversion to answering my ques- 
tions, I again propound several to him, and Ikno\Y this 
audience would like to hear him say yes or no. Does 
h believe the negro to be the equal of the white man ? 
If so, is he in favor of amalgamation? 

Again : is he not a stockholder in the Syracuse 
underground railroad ? Has he never, directly or 
indirectly, aided fugitive slaves in escaping from their 
lawful owners ? Would he, if an opportunity were to 
offer, assist a runaway slave in making his escape ? If 
he have thus assisted, he is a negro-stealer ! If he have 
not, but would do so, if an opportunity w^ere to offer, he 
is a negro-thief at heart, and is condemned by the law 
of God ! 

One other remark, and I take my seat. The gen- 
tleman had the brazen effrontery to stand here last eve- 
ning, and say that he " had stooped very low when he 
engaged in this debate." This pretence is set up now 
as an excuse for not agreeing to meet me south of Ma- 
son and Dixon's Line, or debating this question time 
about, on each side of the line ! What a fanatical out- 
burst of 'pretended respectability ! To be candid — and 
I deal in nothing else — Mr. Pryne never was known 
beyond the smoke of his own chimney, until I brought 
him into notice by accepting his challenge ! He has 
lived thirty-six years in this present evil world, without 
ever having been elevated above the dignity of a hrahe- 
man or conductor^ on an underground railroad ! I 



BY W . G . 13 II W N L W . 277 

deny the possibility of his stooping at all. A man must 
first elevate himself before he can sfoop, and this he has 
never done, unless his associations here with free ne- 
groes have elevated him ! 

He attributed remarks to Henry Clay last evening, 
that Henry Clay never made. If they Avere ever 
uttered at all, they were uttered by some one else. I 
repeat, he read a. forged extract upon Henry Clay. I 
make this announcement because Mr. Clay is not here 
to set himself right ! Not only did Mr. Clay never 
utter the words or sentiments you have attributed to 
him, but I believe they never were uttered by any one 
else. I repeat the charge of forgery, and it remains 
for you to produce your authority, or remain under 
censure. With this distinct avowal, I would let this 
matter pass, but I choose to go further ; I dare to assert, 
that in his rejoinder he will not "stoop" to notice this 
matter, and for obvious reasons ! 

The Uvening Journal of to-day, in a pretended 
report of the discussion of last evening, prefaces the 
same with these editorial remarks : 

" In the course of his remarks, Mr. Brownlow took occasion 
to reflect upon the reporters for the press of this city, saying 
that they were prejudiced against him and his cause, and had 
embraced every opportunity to misrepresent him in his 
speeches. We have been assured that these remarks were 
not meant to refer to the reporters of the Evening Journal, 
the only paper in the city which has presented full and accu- 
rate accounts of the discussion thus far. 

Now, permit me to say, that I never ''assured" the 
Journal, or its reporter, that my remarks were not in- 
tended for it, nor did I authorize any one else to give 
24 



278 AFFIRMATIVE, V. 

such assurance. On the contrary, I meant the Journal 
above all other papers in the city. Its reporter came 
to me for my manuscript this morning, and T told him 
in the presence of others, that I would decline furnish- 
ing it, on account of the one-sided, illiberal, and false 
reports given. His reply was that he desired to give 
my speech in full, that justice might be done me. Upon 
these express terms I gave it to him. And in the very 
paper from which I take this false extract, less than 
one column is occupied in reporting my speech, while 
tliree entire columns are devoted to the speech of Mr. 
Pryne ! I have no respect for any such journals, and 
I have no apologies to offer their reporters for any 
offence I have given them ! 

Finally, it is customary on such occasions as this for 
the disputants to express their admiration of the patient 
and protracted attention. For the general decorum 
and most exemplary behavior of the decent portion 
of the audience, I return my sincere thanks. To the 
opposite class, largely in the majority, m.y competitor 
will no doubt make suitable acknowledgments ! 

His illustration of Southern Christianity in the case 
of a master chaining a slave to a cart, wMe he himself 
went to the communion-table, I must notice briefly, and 
then I am done. I have denied that any such case 
ever occurred in any Southern State, and I repeat this 
denial. He has been called upon by a medical student 
in this city, to say if the case he pretends to give had 
occurred in Florida, and if his Presbyterian clergyman 
were Henry Cherry. His answer was, that it occurred 
in Florida, and that Mr. Cherry was the minister. 
Now, the whole story is without foundation in truth. 



BY W . G . B R W N L o ^y . 279 

This man Cherry is a Northern Abolitionist — he Avas 
once a missionary in India, as my information runs — 
he studied Divinity with H. Ward Beecher^ and settled 
in Florida, near to the Georgia line. He was turned 
out of the Presbyterian ministry for drunkenness. He 
went in debt in Thomasville, Georgia, to all who would 
credit him, until he owed the business men near two 
thousand dollars, which he owes yet, as he escaped from 
the country between two days, the favorite time for 
starting trains on underground railroads ! He is now, 
if still living, in his congenial North, and is a fit subject 
to slander the high-minded and hospitable people of the 
South. And in every instance where names are given 
up, as to the cruelties of slave-owners in the South, the 
witnesses will turn out to be in keeping with this fallen 
minister, degraded hypocrite, and vile Abolitionist. 
Nay, in nine cases out of ten, the retailers of these 
slanders are of ^'the same sort" themselves ! 

For the truth of what I here say, as to Cherry, and 
this slander of a Florida slave-holder, I refer to Kev. 
H. W. Sharp, and Major John D. Edwards, of Thomas- 
ville, Ga., and to Captain James E. Edwards, and R. 
R. Evans, of Newport, Florida ! 



"OUGHT AMERICAN SLAVERY TO BE PERPETUATED?" 

Negative, Y. — By Abram Pryne. 

Ladies and Gentleman : — Before entering upon my 
argument of this evening, allow me to refer to two or 
three extraneous matters, belonging to the courtesies 
and proprieties of this occasion — matters in which 
others than the disputants in this debate are interested. 

In the first place, I desire to acknowledge the 
courtesy, kindness and liberality of the Philadelphia 
j^ress. In the published reports, both sides have, so 
far as I know, been treated fairly — except that some- 
times Mr. Brownlow's speeches could not be obtained 
in full. My opponent last night spoke complainingly 
of the reporters. Allow me to say that my intercourse 
with this class of your citizens has impressed me with 
the fact that they are well-behaved gentlemen. The 
enterprise of the press which has published these 
speeches entitles it to the good consideration of Phila- 
delphians. 

And now, lest it should be thought by some that I 
consider Gen. Small as in the slightest degree responsi- 
ble for any of the sentiments uttered in this debate, 
allow me to say that I regard him as having acted like 
a high-minded and liberal gentleman, in consenting to 
read the addresses of my opponent ; for, without such 
consent, the debate could not have proceeded. I know 

(280) 



NEGATIVE, V. — BY ABRAM PRYNE. 281 

nothing of Gen. Small's political views, nor do I care 
what they may be ; for in my intercourse witli him 
during the progress of this debate, he has acted in so 
gentlemanly a manner as to put himself above all 
questions of politics and partizanship, and commend 
himself to my warm regards. 

My opponent has made som.e remarks as to my 
speeches being prepared before I left home. I have 
only to say that an allusion of this kind comes with 
marked grace from a gentleman who came here with 
every one of his speeches written out — except the tail- 
end ! He must have taken me for a verdant young 
man from the "rural districts" if he supposes I would 
come here unprepared to meet him. Prepared, cer- 
tainly : he gratuitously and blusteringly advised me, 
in our correspondence, to come well prepared, and I 
have taken his advice. 

On a previous evening I offered to repeat this debate 
with my opponent in principal cities of the North. In 
reply, he asked whether I would discuss the question 
with him South as well as North. In order that you 
may understand my position in regard to this matter, 
let me state a few facts. 

Mr. Brownlow, nearly a year ago, threw out a chal- 
lenge which he caused to be published in Northern 
papers, that he. Parson Brownlow, intended to come 
North on a missionary tour ; that he intended to spend 
the summer in debating the slavery question with what- 
ever Abolitionists would dare to meet him, and men- 
tioning Theodore Parker, Henry Ward Beecher and 
others ; that he intended to show himself on Boston 
Common, and that he could speak to a ten acre lot full 
2-j. ^ 



282 NEaATIVE, V. 

of people, if such a congregation cliose to assemble. 
It was in the North that all this was to be done ; it 
was the North in which he challenged the North to 
meet him. Without claiming the dignity of represent- 
in "• the North, I have met him here in Philadelphia, 
and offered to continue the debate with him as he ad- 
vances in his missionary tour through the North. He 
now attempts to slip through my fingers by asking me 
to go South with him half the time — a proposition 
which formed no part of his original challenge to the 
North. 

The reason why I cannot accept his proposition to 
debate with him on Southern territory, is because the 
South dare not let me utter, in freedom, my sentiments. 
Every citizen of Philadelphia knows that this is the 
truth. The hrave South meets Northern ministers with 
mobs. Let a man attempt to address to the Southern 
mind, sentiments with which the people of that section 
differ, and the hrave South gathers hundreds of her 
roughest citizens to argue him down w^ith brickbats, 
and bowic knives, and pistols, and bludgeons. I can- 
not be expected to stand up against the mobs of the 
South w^ith such argumejits as they employ. In a 
debate with such weapons as the South is accustomed 
to use, a mob of thousands of her hrave citizens would 
be too much for me. I appeal to brains, not blud- 
geons. I deal with truths, and not with revolvers. An 
audience of Camanchcs or Root-Diggers, would be too 
much for one clergyman, alone, in debate, if they used 
the usual arguments of Southern mobs. They meet 
reason with brickbats and pistols, and settle questions 
of ethics and logic with gutta percha canes, even on 



B Y A B R A M P R Y N E . 283 

the floor of the Senate ; and my opponent shows his 
courage by inviting me to meet such m croAvel as would 
he gathered in the South to hear us. A fair and equal 
fight that w^ould be ! A Southern mob of thousands 
in arms against a single minister. Brave South! The 
South will not let me, on her own ground, utter, un- 
molested, my ow^n free thoughts ; and therefore I call 
upon my opponent to abide by his original challenge, 
or I shall hold him up before the press of the country 
as having receded from his former position. 

I shall now^ reply briefly to some of the remarks 
which you have to-night heard from my opponent, and 
shall then sum up in a general way the arguments on 
my side of the question. 

An attempt has been made to show^ that the North 
is the aggressor in this Anti-Slavery war. Ask the 
four million slaves of the South who is the aggressor ! 
The South, having stolen the slave from Africa, 
stripped him of his rights, put him under her heel, now 
stands in the attitude of crushing him to the earth, and 
when the North, in the name of reason, and justice, 
and humanity, and God, protests against the outrage, 
she is the aggressor, is she? A rufiian has grasped 
your little child by the throat, and as it looks imploringly 
to you, you rush forward to defend it, when the wretch 
cries out, "Go away, you quarrelsome fellow; don't 
try to get me into a fight ; you are the aggressor!" 

In regard to this slavery controversy, the aggression 
commenced when the fatal wrong of shivery began ; 
and the North, together with the entire civilized world, 
now stands in the defence of humanity, demanding the 
freedom of the slave. 



284 NEGATIVE, Y . 

Through the whole history of the slavery dispute in 
this country, the South, as you know, has been the 
aggressor ; the aggressor in efforts for the extension of 
slave-holding territory — the aggressor in procuring the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise — the aggressor in 
attempting to SAvay, by unworthy influences, the politics 
of the country — the aggressor in trying to fill, not 
only the Presidential Chair, but all the offices of the 
departments and of the army and navy, with her own 
citizens. The advance of slave-holding interests, and 
the increase of slave-holding power, has been, for years 
and years, the grand aim and purpose of her political 
action ; and now, when the free spirit of the North is 
at last aroused to protest against these aggressions on 
the rights of the North, and the rights of man, we are 
to be called the aggressors, are we, and to be put out 
of the controversy on that ground? 

Let me now make a brief reference to that clause 
of the Constitution which has been cited as the basis 
of the fugitive slave act. The clause reads thus : — 

" No person held to service or labor in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence 
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from service 
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due." 

This clause of the Constitution, I contend, forms no 
basis for a fugitive slave law. In the first place, its 
language is, "no person held to service or labor." 
The Southern doctrine is, that slaves are "goods and 
chattels personal." In order to apply to the slave, it 
ought to have said, according to Southern doctrine, 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 285 

^'no property held to service" — "no chattels held to 
service" — "no goods held to service." The personal- 
ity of the slave must either be admitted altogether or 
denied altogether. You cannot shift your ground. 
You must not attempt to give him personality when 
you want to catch him, and deny him personality when 
you want to buy or sell him. The fact is, that, in the 
eye of Southern law, the slave is not a person, but a 
thino-. The distinction between personality and pro- 
perty causes here a gap, broad and deep as that be- 
tween Dives and Lazarus, which the South must over- 
leap before it can make this clause apply to the slave. 

Again, the words are, "no person held to service or 
labor in one State under the laws thereof.'' I have, 
on a previous evening, proved to you that no Southern 
State has on its statute-book any law under which the 
master can claim the right to hold his slave. I have 
given you Senator Mason's statement that no such law 
could be produced. The slave is not held under the 
sanctions of law. Mere possession, mere power to 
liold — brute force — is all the law that the master can 
show in support of his claim. Thus, we have another 
reason why this clause cannot apply. 

The words "person held to service" do not legally 
describe a slave. They describe a Doctor of Divinity 
under contract to "serve" a church, or a salaried 
clerk, or a free chambermaid, as welL A legal de- 
scription must be definite, in order to be binding. If 
you contract to sell an '^ animal" on your estate for 
five dollars, and the other party claims your best horse 
under the contract, and you offer him your dog, claim- 
ing that you thus meet the contract, a court would 



286 NEGATIVE, V. 

decide the contract to be void for indefiniteness. So, 
a contract to deliver up a "person held to service" 
cannot apply to a chattel, a piece of goods, held by no 
contract, and under no legal obligation. On this point 
Daniel Webster said, in his place in the Senate, March 
7, 1850: 

"It may not be improper here to allude to that — I had 
almost said celebrated — opinion of Mr. Madison. You 
observe, sir, that the term slavery is not used in the Consti- 
tution. The Constitution does not require that fugitive 
slaves shall he delivered up ; it requires that persons hound 
to service in one State, and escaping into another, shall he 
delivered up. Mr. Madison opposed the introduction of the 
term slave or slavery into the Constitution • for he said he 
did not wish to see it recognized by the Constitution of the 
United States of America, that there could be property in 
men." 

The Supreme Court of the United States has decided 
that — 

"Where rights are infringed, where fundamental princi- 
ples are overthrown, where the general system of the laws is 
departed from, the legislative intention must be expressed 
with irresistible clearness, to induce a court of justice to 
suppose a design to effect such objects. — United States vs. 
Fisher, 2 Cranch, 390. 



Again, this clause provides that the person escaping 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to ivhom 
such service of labor may be due. You must prove 
that there is labor due from the slave to the man who 
is chasing him through the North. But, according to 
Southern law, the slave can hold nothing, can own 
nothing, can owe nothing ; and, if the slave cannot 
owe anything, how can there be any labor due from 
him? 



BY ABRAM TRYNE. 287 

My opponent asks mo tauntingly wlietlicr I have not 
stock in the "underground raikoad?" — whether I 
would assist a fugitive slave in making his escape ? I 
answer, without hesitation, that, if a poor negro, flee- 
ing from Southern oppression, should come to my door 
at night, asking for shelter and a bed, I would give 
him the best bed in my humble house ; and should any 
kidnapper come in pursuit of him, I happen (though 
not a man of war) to have in my possession an old 
rifle, which would do good service in defending him. 

My opponent has used the name of Benjamin 
Franklin to give weight to his side of the controversy. 
He has told you that Franklin — whose bones, honored 
and reverenced, as they ought to be, lie among you — 
declined to act with the Abolitionists of Pennsylvania ; 
refused to co-operate with the Society that elected him 
its President. I happened to have in my vest pocket, 
at the moment when this assertion was uttered, a copy 
of a petition for the abolition of slavery, addressed to 
the Congress of the United States, signed by Benja- 
min Franklin, and ofi'ered by him on the floor of 
Cono-ress. I will read a single passage from this 
memorial : 

'< From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the 
portion, and is still the birthright of all men, and influenced 
by the strong ties of humanity and the principles of our 
institutions, your memoriaUsts conceive themselves bound to 
use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, 
and to promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of 
freedom.'^ 

This is my sufficient answer to the imputation that 
Benjamin Franklin was in favor of American slavery. 



288 NEGATIVE, V. 

"We have had warmly described to us the sea-coast 
of the South, the extent of her harbors, her facilities 
for commerce and navigation. I have no disposition 
to deny any of these statements ; I myself have told 
you that the South is far ahead of the North in natu- 
ral advantages. But how does she improve her mag- 
nificent endowments? What advantage is it to her 
that the waters of the ocean wash her long- extending 
seaboard ? The harbor of Beaufort, N. C, is, in natu- 
ral advantages, second to none, perhaps, of which this 
continent can boast. The town was settled, if I re- 
member rightly, almost as early as Boston, and the 
harbor is nearly equal to that of Boston. Yet make 
a contrast between Boston and the little village of 
Beaufort, N. C, with its magnificent harbor and its 
dilapidated houses, the grass growing in its streets, 
and you see at once how the spirit of freedom improves 
the natural advantages that she bestows on the North ; 
while the South, with the waves of the ocean dashing 
on her extended coast, and her spacious harbors invi- 
ting commerce ; with a seaboard extending from Dela- 
ware Bay around the peninsula of Florida, and along 
the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico and far up 
the south-west, where the Pacific hurls her thundering 
waves against the land of gold, her coast is made 
desolate by the spirit of slavery, checking the enter- 
prise and genius that might make the most of these 
great natural blessings. The point which I make is, 
that 'the North is ahead in wealth and power, not 
in consequence of her superior natural advantages, 
but in spite of the superior natural advantages of the 
South. 



BY A B II A M r R Y N E . 289 

And here let mc read a single extract. Hear how 
a North Carolinian describes 3'our Southern harbors : 

" How is it with Beaufort, in North CaroHna, wliosc har- 
bor is said to be tlie safest and most commodious anywhere 
to be found on the xltlantic coast south of the harbor of New 
York, and but little inferior to that? Has anybody ever 
lieard of her ? Do the masts of her ships ever cast a shadow 
on furei^-n waters? Upon what distant or benighted shore 
have her merchants and mariners ever hoisted our national 
ensign, or spread the arts of civilization and peaceful indus- 
try? What changes worthy of note have taken place in the 
physical features of her superficies since Hhe evening and 
the morning were the third day?' But we will make no 
further attempt to draw a comparison between the populous, 
wealthy, and renowned city of j^oston, and the obscure, 
despicable little village of Beaufort, which, notwithstanding 
' the placid bosom of its deep and well-protected harbor,' has 
no place in the annals or records of the country, and has 
scarcely ever been heard of fifty miles from home." — Hel- 
per : Tlie Impend uty Crisis. 

And here is the description of Southern dependence 
on the North : 

''Reader! would you understand how abjectly slaveholders 
themselves are enslaved to the products of Northern indus- 
try ? If you would, fix your mind on a Southern 'gentle- 
man' — a slave-breeder and human-flesh monger, who professes 
to be a Christian ! Observe the routine of his daily life. 
See him rise in the morning from a Northern bed, and clothe 
himself in Northern apparel; see him walk across the floor 
on a Northern carpet, and perform his ablutions out of a 
Northern ewer and basin. See him uncover a box of North- 
ern powders, and cleanse his teeth with a Northern bru:5h ; 
see him reflecting his physiognomy in a Northern mirror, and 
arranoing his hair with a Northern comb. See him dosing 
himself with the medicaments of Northern quacks, and per- 
fumino' his handkerchief with Northern colognes. See him 
referring to the time in a Northern watch, and glancing at 
9". 



290 NEGATIVE, V. 

tlie news in a Northern gazette. See him and his family 
sittinp: in Northern chairs, and singing; and praying out of 
Northern books. See him at the breakfast table, saying 
grace over a Northern plate, eating with Northern cutlery, 
and drinking from Northern utensils. See him charmed with 
the melody of a Northern piano, or musing over the pages 
of a Northern novel. See him riding to his neighbor's in a 
Northern carriage, or furrowing his lands with a Northern 
plow. See him ligliting his cigar with a Northern match, 
and flogging his negroes with a Northern lash. See him, 
with Northern pen and ink, writing letters on Northern 
paper, and sending them away in Northern envelopes, sealed 
with Northern wax, and impressed with a Northern stamp.'' 
— The linj^endintj Crisis. 

In regard to the figures whicli my opponent has 
given to-night, let me say that his statements touched 
only one side. He offered figures to prove the great- 
ness of the South ; but he did not, step by step, give 
the Northern balance, as I did in my statistical argu- 
ment. The reason he did not do so, is that he is 
ashamed to. Had he done so truthfully and faithfully, 
the terrible balance against the South would have over- 
whelmed him, as did my argument on that subject the 
other night; for my figures, taken from the Census 
Report, cannot be controverted. 

Washington has been again alluded to, this evening, 
as a friend of the Union, and as a slaveholder. Yes, 
gentlemen, Washington was a friend of the Union. So 
am I. If any of you understood me last night as 
being in favor of a dissolution of the Union, you mis- 
took my meaning. The purport of what I said was, 
that if we must either have slavery eternally, or have 
a dissolution, I would consent even to dissolution in the 
end, in order to get rid of shivery. But I have no 



BY A B R A M P II Y N E . 291 

belief that it ^vill be necessary to dissolve the Union to 
secure the abolition of slavery. On the contrary, I 
believe that the glorious spirit of humanity rising in 
the North will yet dig a channel, through the ballot- 
box, for the abolition of slavery, without the necessity 
of resorting to dissolution. 

The name of Washington has been again used to add 
sanction to slavery. The name of the Father of our 
Country, from whatever portion of it he came, let me 
speak with all due reverence, and that reverence will 
be only heightened as I read these noble words of his 
to the Marquis de Lafayette on the subject of slavery — 

" The scheme, my dear Marquis, which you propose as a 
precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people 
in this country from the state of bondage in which they are 
held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your heart. 
I shall he lia-ppy to join you in so laudable a work ; but will 
defer going into a detail of the business till I have the 
pleasure of seeing you.'^ 

Every time my opponent attempts to cite Washing- 
ton, or any of the Fathers, as favoring American 
slavery, I can answer him with such a quotation as this 
in black and white. 

A matter which I cannot fail to notice, as a pro- 
minent feature of this debate, is the eifort upon the 
other side, to change the issue. We came here to dis- 
cuss the question, " Should American Slavery be per- 
petuated?" My opponent was to support the afiirma- 
tive of this question ; but instead of offering arguments 
tending to that end he has given us bitter denunciations 
of the North, alleging that it is a horrible land, full of 
hypocrisy, pauperism and crime. But if all this be 



292 NEGATIVE, V. 

true, how does it affect the question whether slavery 
ouscht to be abolished ? It does not make the difference 
of a hair in the decision of the question. It strikes me 
that the pot, when it called the kettle black, did not 
whiten itself much, and that it was so conscious of its 
own infernal blackness that it wanted to relieve itself 
by getting the kettle in its company. 

The taunts against Northern religion, so repeatedly 
thrown out, do not affect the issue. If we are all a set 
of hypocrites, is that any reason why the South should 
be all a set of baby-stcalers ? Whatever evils prevail 
in the North are not caused by freedom, nor are they 
inseparable from it. 

My opponent has told us of the kindness of masters. 
Supposing it to be proved that masters are most kind, 
how does that change the result of the question whether 
the relation of master and slave is right ? How does 
that prove that the chattel principle is founded in 
justice ? But I do not acknowledge that masters are 
kind. I would not admit the kindness of the master, 
though he should dress his slave in silks, and fill his 
stomach with the choicest viands of the land. When a 
man lays his hand on my personality, and blots it out 
"at one fell swoop" — when he takes the keeping of 
my own soul and conscience into his tyrannical hands 
— and then cantingly turns to me and talks about 
kindness, I hurl back the insulting assumption that he 
may, without guilt, trample on my dearest rights. 

Again : The argument has been trailed all through 
this debate, that God allowed the Jews to hold slaves. 
I have shown that the word "servant," as used in the 
Bible, does not mean "slave," and that, therefore, the 



BY ABRAM PRYNE 293 

argument docs not at all cover the ground. But even 
supposing that God did allow the Jews to hold slaves, 
how does that toucii the question whether the Yankees 
have a right to do so ? Suppose it true that God did 
permit, in that age, a system of servitude that was 
wrong ; so did he allow polygamy ; but does that fact 
prove that polygamy is right now ? Many things were 
allowed under the Old Testament dispensation, which 
the clearer light of Christianity has swept away — of 
which the better day that dawned with the coming of 
Jesus has shown us the error and enormity. Christ, 
at His coming, brushed away all those remnants of a 
darker age, giving us that glorious Gospel, the very 
genius and spirit of which puts all humanity on one 
common level, and makes us all brothers. When the 
growing light of Christianity has shone for eighteen 
hundred years — when ages of human progress have 
gathered their results for our instruction — shall we — 
as we view slavery in the light of its horrid con- 
sequences, shown over the track of centuries, in the 
light of its desolating effects marked out through the 
whole pathway of history — shall we pronounce it in- 
nocent and God-sanctioned, simply because we read 
that some of the ancient patriarchs, in the darker ages, 
held servants ? Why, gentlemen, if I had not quoted 
a single text, if I had not stopped to reply to my 
opponent's Scriptural argument, such considerations as 
these w^ould be all sufficient to sweep it away forever. 

Let me now recapitulate briefly the points which I 

have endeavored to establish by my several arguments 

in this debate. I have shown that slavery began in 

murder and pii'acy ; that, such being its illegitimate 

25* 



294 NEGATIVE, V. 

and villanous LIrtli, it onglit to have died at the first ; 
and that the retribution of an incensed God and the 
just moral sense of the world have been hunting it 
from that time to this. I have shown that slavery has 
existed without the sanction of genuine law ; in defiance 
of the Declaration of Independence ; in violation of 
the Constitution of the United States; in conflict with 
the letter and spirit of the common law, and in the 
utter absence of any statutarj enactment giving it crea- 
tion or sanction. I have swept away all the vestiges 
of legal seeming that have been gathered around it, 
and revealed it to your gaze standing forth in all the 
horrid features of outrage and barbarity that marked it 
at its birth through the slave-trade. I have brought 
to bear on this question not only considerations of 
morals, but considerations of politics, showing how it 
disgraces our nation before the civilized world. I have 
urged against this evil, arguments drawn from the letter 
and spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have exhibited 
the crushing weight of slavery upon the material wealth 
and progress of the nation. These are the several 
points which I have sought to bring before your minds. 

In reply to what I have said in regard to the Old 
Testament it has been urged that the New Testament 
itself sai^ctions slavery. I remaij^, in reply, that 
slavery locks the Bible, places shackles upon the con- 
science of the Christian, and therefore the New Testa- 
ment is against it. 

My opponent has, from time to time, thrown out 
taunts at Romanism, because of its retarding influence 
on the enlightenment of the world. He told us that 
the most cruel slaveholders in the South were Roman- 



BY ABRAiM PRYNE. 295 

ists. I am no Romanist, or defender of the Romanists ; 
still, I do not understand this to be true. And I would 
remark that slavery, in the course it pursues with rep:ard 
to religion, in locking up the mind of the slave, in 
taking the Bible from his hand, in controlling his con- 
science with the lash of the slave-driver, in drivins; him 
from his Sabbath school, in forcing him into a religion 
that he loathes, and out of a religion that he would 
love, if he were not obliged to have it crucified and 
crushed by the enormities practised upon him by its 
professors ; slavery, in doing all this, develops the 
darkest features of the spirit of Romanism. 

The severest complaint tliat we can make against the 
Roman Church bears more overwhelmingly against the 
spirit and practice of American slavery, for suppressing 
the Bible, for shackling the rights of conscience, for 
persecuting ministers of the gospel who attempt to 
preach God's word, for mobbing John G. Fee, for mur- 
dering Charles T. Torre}^, for inflicting upon the brave 
and good men who have attempted to preach through 
the South the words of Jesus, the same rufEan-like per- 
secution with which Romanism, at some eras of the 
world's history, has met Protestantism. When a man 
comes here prating about the evils of Romanism, while 
at the same time he defends and strives to perpetuate 
a system in the South which is even worse in its rela- 
tion to religion, he is, to say the least, capping the 
climax of inconsistency and absurdity. 

My opponent seems to think that I have slandered 
the people of the South in speaking of them as going 
to the communion table while their negroes are chained 
to carts. Why, gentlemen, it is but a short time since 



296 NEGATIVE, V. 

I heard tlie story of sucli a transaction related in the 
city of Syracuse, by a Presbyterian deacon who had 
been to Florida to work for a year or two, and had been 
driven out on account of his expression of anti-slavery 
sentiments. He related that one day, going home from 
Presbyterian church, accompanied by a member who 
had just partaken with him at the communion-table, he 
looked over the garden-fence of that member as he ap- 
proached his house, and saw one of his slaves chained 
to the cart-wheel. Being asked the reason, this church 
member answered, that when he went to meeting he 
dare not leave this slave unless he were chained up, for 
fear that he would commit some depredation. So, here 
was your Florida saint sitting at the communion-table 
while his negro was chained to the cart-wheel at home ! 
Shall I not say that I have done no wrong to the spirit 
of that religion which sanctions the holding of slaves ? 
We have been told (and I suppose the gentleman 
expected it would frighten us) that, because of the grow- 
ing Anti-Slavery spirit of the North, our Northern 
watering-places are failing to receive, of late years, the 
same amount of Southern patronage that they once 
enjo^^ed ; and that our great commercial cities are fast 
losing the custom of Southern buyers. He shakes his 
poor, lean Southern purse at us — as if we cared for 
your pimps that frequent Northern watering-places, as 
if we were so extremely anxious for their money that, 
to secure it, we would trample on the rights of man 
and crush four millions of slaves ! Why, gentlemen, 
if the heart of the North should be enlarged with 
humanity sufficient to procure the liberation of the 
slave, what though our haunts of fashion, with their 



BY A B 11 A M r R Y N E . 297 

varied ■wickedness be all desolate ? vvliat tliougli our 
sales of merchandize be somewhat lessened ? But I 
take the liberty of saying that the statistics to which 
the gentleman has referred in regard to this matter arc 
entirely untrue. Our Northern watering-places and 
our Northern commercial cities are frequented by the 
South as much now as ever before. The number of 
Southern gentlemen in Philadelphia to-night, buying 
goods, proves it. And they will undoubtedly continue 
to frequent the North. So far as this argument is 
concerned, the crack of the cotton-god's wdiip mW not, 
I take it, have any great effect in suppressing the 
humanity of the citizens of Philadelphia, or in crushing 
the free spirit of the whole North. 

As another reason for the abolition of slavery, I 
refer to its spirit as exhibited in the history of Kansas. 
The efforts of the South to push slavery into that ter- 
ritory and spread it upon that virgin soil, are so horrid 
a development of its spirit of ruffianism, that even 
were there no other exhibition of it, it is time that we 
should exert ourselves to abolish slavery. 

My opponent has, in the course of his speeches, 
sneered at the Maine Law spirit of the North. That 
he should do so, is not surprising; for how, in the 
name of reason, can you carry out your system of ruf- 
fianism in Kansas without whisky ? How can you ac- 
complish the purposes and aims of the slave power, 
without its terrible ally, the rum power ? These two 
monster spirits of wickedness have stood hand in hand 
and shoulder to shoulder in this whole controversy. 
Slavery ought to be abolished, if for no other 



298 NEGATIVE, V. 

reason, because it affiliates with the terrible vice of 
drunkenness. 

A member of Congress from my own State was once 
asked how it was that a certain great statesman (whom 
I will not mention because of respect for the name he 
once bore) was brought down into the position that he 
took with regard to the South in one of the great 
issues on the slavery question. The answer which this 
gentleman gave was, that just at that time the saloons 
about tlie capitol were filled with the most villanously 
drugged brandy that ever he knew to be there ; and 
although be did not think that this great statesman 
drank any more than had been his habit previously, 
yet the liquor was so bad that it upset his brain, and 
he went in for the whole demands of slavery, the overturn 
of the Missouri Compromise and all. 

And let me tell you an incident in regard to the pas- 
sage of the Nebraska bill — a story of shame that 
should tinge the cheek of every American of spirit. 
On the night when that iniquitous measure was con- 
summated, the Governor-General of Canada sat in the 
House of Representatives until midnight, beside Ger- 
rit Smith, (who, as the newspapers said, ran home and 
did not vote, but who, in truth, was there and did vote.) 
In the midst of that shameful scene — while half the 
members were too drunk to stand up to vote, and the 
others too drunk to hold them up — while the click of 
pistol locks was heard at times, and the gleam of bowie 
knives gave occasional threatenings of a fight — during 
the enacting of this mortifying spectacle, brought on 
by the spirit of slavery controlling the Congress of the 
United States, the Governor-General turned to Mr. 



BY A B R A M T R Y N E . 299 

Smith and said : " I have witnessed almost as dIso;racc- 
ful scenes as this in the British House of Commons." 
Thus did the courtly foreigner seek to soften the shame 
"ndiich tinged the face of Mr. Smith, in view of liis 
country's disgrace, by a half apology for the drunken 
row. And thus the spirit of rum and slavery, until 
they be conquered, will over and over again bring us 
into this position of contempt before the civilized 
world. 

Again : slavery ought to be abolished, because it 
seeks to destroy the freedom of the ballot-box. The 
men in Kansas who wanted to vote like freemen, for a 
Constitution of their own, were driven back by slavery's 
bristling bayonets in drunken hands ; and that too, I 
am afraid, with the spirit of the National Administra- 
tion, under the control of the slave-power, sustaining 
their ruffianism. Our ri£i;ht of free suffraire at the 
ballot-box, the very core and essence of all our rights, 
is either to be encroached upon more and more until it 
be finally and fatally lost, or we must abolish American 
slavery. 

And let me tell you, freedom in Kansas was secured 
by a firm resistance to this spirit of slavery. Do you 
think it was Congressional speeches that secured free- 
dom in Kansas ? You are greatly mistaken ; It was 
glorious old John Brown with his armed men. The 
Demon of slavery was beaten back, because he and 
his brave band were on the ground to let her minions 
know that they had caught the spirit of '76, and were 
ready to fight for freedom. 

While on this subject, excuse a little seeming egotism. 
I am proud to say that before John Brown went to 



300 NEGATIVE, V . 

Kansas, I had the privilege, in an Anti-Slavery Con- 
vention at Syracuse, of moving a resolution to buy 
rifles for his " boys." I made a speech in favor of the 
resolution, and though it did not escape opposition, it 
"was carried through enthusiastically ; the collection 
■was taken up, and John BroAvn and his "boys" were 
assisted to buy rifles. 

It is the same spirit of firm opposition to the ini- 
quities of American slavery — even to the extent of 
fighting for freedom if necessary — that is indispensable 
to save the liberties of our country. 

Southern religion has been presented to us as the 
highest type of Christianity. Let me bring to your 
mind a picture, unfortunately not a vision of the ima- 
gination. On the broad lagoon of some African river 
are seen the masts of the slaver, towering above the 
tropical vegetation : 

Hark ! from the ship's dnrk bosom, 

The very sounds of hell! 
The ringing clank of iron — 

The maniac's short sharp yell ! 
The hoarse, low curse, throat-stifled — 

The infant's starving moan — 
The horror of a breaking heart 

Poured through a mother's groan ! 

Now, see that slaver as she approaches her Southern 
port, the tall church spires of which rise in the dis- 
tance. Now, look into one of those churches. . Re- 
member that its leading members are the OAvncrs of 
this vessel ; remember that they provide the market 
for the negroes she has stolen ; and buy the human 
chattels which she brings across the water ; remember 



BY AI1RA:M rPvYNE. 301 

all this, and then tell mo whether, in the view of God's 
clear-ejed justice, the slave ship in the lagoon, Avith 
its shrieking victims smothering in the hold, is not as 
worthy the name of church as this dome-capped edifice, 
where, in profanation of religion's name, these traf- 
fickers in immortal souls assemble. 

Christ regards all his children alike. God, the 
Father of us all, is acceptably worshipped by fidelity 
to the great law of human brotherliood. Can a man 
love Christ, and at the same time treat as a brute one 
of those precious immortals for whom Christ died ? 

Suppose there is a man, who calls himself my friend, 
who, on every occasion, in every place, is profuse in 
expressions of friendship and of praise. Suppose that 
to-night, while I am far from my home, my little flaxen- 
haired boy of four summers has wandered out into the 
darkness, and as he grows bewildered and wear}^ a 
storm comes on, the lightnings flash athwart the hea- 
,vens, and the clouds pour out their rain. As he wan- 
ders on, the storm beating upon his defenceless head 
he sinks helpless into the mire, and must soon perish. 
Just at this moment, my pretended friend comes riding 
alono*, he who has praised me often and often, and been 
lavish in professions of love. He sees my poor, help- 
less child, and what does he do ? Of course, he will 
get down and take him into the warm, snug carriage. 
No ! he drives ruthlessly over him ! Suppose that 
wretch shall come to me to-morrow, renewing his false 
professions and claiming still to be my warmest friend 
— what shall I say to him ? Shall I not ansAver, "No ! 
quit my sight, you heartless hypocrite ! Had you 
26 



802 NEGATIVELY. 

loved me, you would have loved my child, and tenderly 
cared for liim when in distress." 

Now let me make the application. God is the father 
of us all ; and his poor chiklren, the stricken, heart- 
broken slaves, are groping and struggling in search of 
freedom ; the storms of oppression are beating upon 
them : and yet they are trodden down and over ridden 
by the Chrutians of the South, who are at the same 
time shouting the praises of God, claiming to love him 
devoutly and to be his sincerest worshippers. Will not 
God, as their praises rise up to him from hollow hearts, 
answer, "Inasmuch as ye have failed to do it unto the 
least of these, my poor little ones on earth, the door 
of Heaven's kingdom is closed against you. Your 
praise is a mockery ; your professed devotion a sham. 
I scorn your oblations and your fastings. An accept- 
able fast is ' to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the 
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.' " 

Yet we are told that clergymen at the North who 
plead for the rights of the slave, are derelict in their 
duty — false to the holy religion they profess. What ! 
are only they true ministers of God's gospel who can 
lend the sanction of His word to the barbarities of 
slavery ? 

Just God ! — and these arc they 

Who minister at Thine altar, God of Right ! 
Men who their hands with praj'er and blessing lay 

On Israel's ark of liglit ! 

What ! preach — and kidnap men ? 

Give thanks — and rob Thine own afflicted poor? 
Talk of Thy glorious liljerty — and tlien 

Bolt hard the captive's door? 



BYABRAM PRYNE. 303 

What ! servants of thine own 

Merciful Son, who came to seek and save 
The homeless and tlio outcast — fettering down 

The tasked and plundered slave! 

Pilate and Herod, friends I 

Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine! 
Just God and holy! is that church which lends 

Strength to the spoiler, Thine? 

Paid hypocrites! who turn 

Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book 
Of those high words of truth which search and burn 

lu warning and rebuke. 

And now, my friends, my argument is done. With- 
out fear of being contradicted by the warmest friend 
of the shive, I say, I have done my duty. According 
to my own poor ability, and with whatever strength 
God h:is given me, I have done my duty to the four 
millions of stricken ones whose wail comes to us on the 
Southern breeze — to the voiceless maidens, sold in 
Southern shambles — to the strong-armed men, ren- 
dered mute by chains. Could all the slave poj^ulation 
of the South hear me to-night, I would venture to 
stand before them and say that at least to them, my 
poor, crushed and outraged brethren, I have, in this 
debate, whatever may have been my faults, done my 
duty as a brother man. 

I have also, as well as my humble powers enabled 
me, done my duty to the cause of freedom. I have 
given up my heart to her glorious inspiration, and put 
all my energies in accord with her noblest instincts 
and loftiest aims. If I have failed of the success that 
might have been wished, the cause must be found in 



304 NEGATIVE, V. 

mj own lack of power. But, gentlemen, I have been 
successfQl. I stand here, with all you men of heart 
and intelligence to sustain me, when I affirm that, in 
the argument of this debate I have been most eminently 
successful. 

I have done my duty ; will you do yours ? Will 
you raise the standard of humanity in this broad land ? 
Will you be true to the aims and purposes of freedom ? 
Will you give up your heart to the moving and growing 
impulses which are urging the world up to higher light 
and broader truth, and nobler brotherhood ? Will you, 
taking the sentiments I have uttered, and the princi- 
ples I have advocated, weave them into your lives, and 
work them out in your relation to the politics of the 
country ? Vf e need a holier politics, as well as a holier 
religion — a higher type of statesmanship, a nobler 
motive of political union , the recognition of govern- 
ment as coming from God, and deriving all its sanctity 
from the Divine command. Let us engage in the per- 
formance of civil duties as men and Christians: and 
then, when we shall appreciate the glory and dignity 
of true human government, recognizing God as its 
author, and His principles as the guiding light in 
administering the affairs of a nation, we shall cleanse 
our land from the foul wrong of American slavery, so 
that wx shall no longer be the scorn of the civilized 
world. Then it will be no longer true that 

"While every flap of England's flag 
Proclaims that all around are free, 
From farthest Ind to each blue crag, 
That beetles o'er the Western sea ;" 



BY abra:\i tryne. 305 

our own America, with her boasted republicanism, and 
liberty, and religion, is a land where four millions of 
slaves sigh for freedom. And they will obtain their 
freedom as they ought to have it. Then, indeed, may 
we boast of the glory of our land. Then Avill tlie 
heart of humanity look upwards. Then will the eye 
of God light up with a more kindly smile as he looks 
down upon us. Then will the world be blessed, not 
only by the example of the fathers, but by the glorious 
deeds of the sons of the glorious fathers who achieved 
the American Revolution. 

*' So let it be ! In God's own might, 
"We gird us for the coming fight, 
And, strong in Him whose cause is ours, 
*• In conflict with unholy powers. 

We grasp the weapons He has given — 
The light, and truth, and love of heaven V 



THE END 



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